So great a reformation cannot of course be brought about till shame is felt for the scandalously low standard of health now common among all classes, nor until a general determination is developed to remove the minor miseries from which we all suffer more or less impatiently.
XIII. THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTAL HYGIENE IN FAMILY LIFE
The result of a curious obtuseness to the economics of personal and domestic hygiene is also responsible for another serious dereliction of parental duty, by which health and progress have been grievously, though quite unnecessarily and constantly, hampered. I refer to the general failure to economise nervous energy or to take any interest in what is rightly called mental hygiene. Yet Press and people alike deplore the evident increase of mental abnormalities, and anticipate the future with undisguised anxiety. It has been well said that though men carry more of the wood, women carry not less of the worries of life. They may in some cases escape the physical toil which strengthens; they do not escape the mental toil which demoralises and kills spirit and energy if not body and 262 health. Now, though the brain tissues do not create mental activities, nevertheless we all know that they are conditioned in some inexplicable way by that organ. Derangement in any part of the brain deranges or diminishes its functions; non-development in any part of the brain can and does arrest mind growth. Chronic over-fatigue and exhaustion, anæmia however produced, the circulation through the nervous tissues of impure blood, alter the character of the mental processes. The results of starvation may so distort them, that the horrors of the French Revolution are attributed by some authorities to this particular cause. That the imperfect lymph circulation associated with adenoid vegetations accounts for much so-called stupidity is one of the first fruits of the medical inspection of school children; that a severe shock may destroy intelligence is a fact familiar to every expert in mental hygiene. If it were generally known to parents that every impression received by this, the most sensitive of all organs, is stored up from early infancy, albeit subconsciously, and can at some future time rise up into the field of consciousness, influencing both thought and action for good or ill, a very different line of conduct would be taken towards the persons or the places which make up a young child’s surroundings and most indelibly impress his brain cells.
It is surely time, therefore, that some broad outline of the process of normal development of the whole nervous system should be possessed by 263 all in charge of children. Every mother, for example, should know that the movements of a new-born baby, such as the facial contortions observed during sleep, or the stretching and bending of the limbs in very young infants, involuntary and automatic in character, constitute the simplest form of nervous activity. They are the necessary precursors of that intellectual ability, to the development of which parental ambitions aspire, and should merge into more advanced forms of nerve and muscle co-ordination, which, rightly utilised, are invaluable agents in infant education.[119] An intelligent nurse possessed of even this outline could begin quite early that training in physiological righteousness and in the strict voluntary control of the whole group of emotional expressions, of which, as a little reflection will quickly show, good manners largely consist. Presently, as the brain cells are stimulated into function by nutrition and a quicker and more extensive recognition of external sensations is acquired, a child will perform instinctive movements, such as sitting, crawling, standing, walking, jumping and throwing. Though considerable latitude must be allowed for their wide individual variation, failure to display these evidences of mental progress should call for careful investigation. Later on, skill in a hundred different forms of muscular activity should be displayed; but many years will elapse before full control of the 264 body in all its parts will be acquired, and more years still must roll by before reasoned control of the mental and moral actions is developed. The last years of this long period of development are, perhaps, the most critical of the whole; though all depend for their favourable fruition upon an infinity of loving care and suitable provision for their appropriate activities.
There would be a marked reduction in exhausting disciplinary difficulties were every parent aware that, to the almost vegetative character of the first few post-natal months (when sleep will or should absorb at least twenty hours out of the twenty-four), will succeed a period of extraordinary activity, which lasts till about eight or nine years of age, when the mind is essentially an exploring organ; imitative, impressionable, retentive. Every legitimate opportunity for the liberal gratification of these characteristics should be provided, as well as suitable surroundings for the eager, inquiring brain. Elaborate toys are not necessary, nor is premature book-learning permissible; but freedom to investigate, to experiment, to test, to explore, is the child’s urgent need, as well as suitable arrangements for the intervening periods of profound sleep. Repressed activity is often responsible for breaches of discipline; so is insufficient sleep, following on over-excitement, accountable for “temper” and passions.
The next phase of growth is still distinguished by this continued capacity for and dependence upon muscular activity, but the mind becomes 265 more reflective, more productive. The power to initiate should develop during this stage of development, as well as increased power to control mental and bodily functions; and, throughout each of these periods, there should be a steady, unintermittent formation of good habits. At first, the nature of these will be chiefly physical; the habitual performance of the bodily functions should be safeguarded, until their neglect is attended by discomfort and their violation becomes almost painful. Then, by degrees, the moral and mental nature develops.
Thus is the child prepared for the stress and turmoil of the long and anxious years of adolescence; when, under the influence of new emotions, of fresh temptations, of unfamiliar powers, the character built on the sands of parental indulgence is undermined, if not swept clean away; whereas when built on the firm rock of good habits it emerges unshaken from the storm.
That childhood is an honourable estate must be now evident; pregnant as it is with possibilities, pathetic in the risks associated with its plasticity and dependence. Should it therefore be necessary in the twentieth century to point out that, when the fund of nervous energy is constantly exhausted by deficient sleep and poor food; when a demand on function in advance of what nature is prepared to comply with is persistently made, as it has habitually been in our schools; when exaggerated and pernicious stimuli are allowed to fatigue and to paralyse our child 266 population; when inadequate training in the right conduct of life is provided, and no information given on the dawning functions of potential parenthood; when premature responsibility is imposed or precocious and unwholesome independence is permitted; worst of all, when, through parental disease or alcoholism, the brain tissue is of too poor a quality to resist the strain of modern life—it is no matter for surprise that mental instability and insanity are on the increase, nor that degenerates hamper by their helplessness and crime the productive capacity of the normal.
The importance of mental hygiene calls for no more emphasis on my part; though, did space permit, further illustrations might be given of its scope. It includes the methods in our nurseries, the curriculum of our schools, the care of our adolescents, the increasing differentiation of our industrial processes, the character of our often miscalled recreations. It is concerned with the warding off of nervous breakdowns, and, with Goethe, it would call the attention of all women to the fact that the secret of rest is found not “in quitting a busy career, but rather the fitting of self to one’s sphere.” It views with anxiety the growing disregard of religious obligations and restraints, and emphasises the grave antenatal responsibilities of parents for their offspring; they who should be the most ardent advocates of a sound heredity, as well as the promoters of a good home environment for their children.