Is Your Mate Sane and from a Family in Which No Insanity is Present? Except in pronounced forms, psychoses are not easily diagnosed. The borderline between sanity and insanity is no more distinct than is the line between black and white. All shades of gray exist. Many paranoidal persons roam the streets of our country and in many cases are able to carry the responsibilities of normal life, at least until they encounter continued frustration which will bring the insanity into an easily recognizable form. Insanity is not easily detected unless there is uncontrolled behavior or pronounced incompetence in obeying normal standards of behavior. In a recent book issued through the National Committee for Mental Hygiene there is a statement that one out of twenty-five persons reaching adulthood should be confined. Another four out of twenty-five are severely neurotic and another eight are handicapped by milder neurotic disturbances. On the basis of these findings at least one person in four is severely maladjusted and at least one in two is maladjusted to some extent.
If you are concerned about the mental balance of any possible mate, you might ask yourself these questions:
Has he been confined at some time in a mental institution?
Has he been rejected or released from military service because of outright mental disturbances?
Does his family have a history of insanity?
Is he free from syphilis?
Has he ever suffered from severe injury damaging the brain?
Do you know if he has shown extreme aberrations on any psychological tests to measure abnormalities of mental function?