Civics and HealthAllen, William H. (WIlliam Harvey)
Science
Civics and Health
Allen, William H. (WIlliam Harvey)
Hygiene; Public health
Fear can originate with mind. Fear produces fear. Fear disarranges
circulation of the blood and the nourishment of muscle and nerve. Fear
can produce many bodily disorders which in turn feed fear. Fear cannot
last unless bodily symptoms exist or arise to justify and feed it. Fear
can be cured and removed in two ways: (1) by driving away fear and
releasing bodily disorders from its thraldom; (2) by removing the
disorders and making fear impossible to the logical mind. An enforced
sea voyage begins with the disorder; a clever, buoyant physician begins
with the fear. Patent-medicine proprietors, quacks, and fakes of every
kind begin by displacing the fear with hope or cheer; the physical
disorders frequently vanish by the same window as fear. For _fear_
write _self-pity_, _morbid self-consciousness_, _hypertrophied
submission_; to _hope_ and _cheer_ add _smile_, _relaxation_, and
_zest_; and we have the chief elements of mental hygiene and the reason
why intelligent as well as unintelligent men like to be swindled by
medical or other quacks.
The social aspects of mental hygiene are particularly important. Once
admitting the power of the mind to decrease vitality, we recognize the
duty of seeming happy, buoyant, cheerful, vital, at least when with
others, for the sake of others' minds and bodies. Secondly, we find the
duty to refrain from commenting on others' appearance in a way that
will start "ingrowing thoughts." A "grouchy" foreman can give blues and
indigestion to a roomful of factory girls. A self-pitying teacher can
check the heart beats of her class, cause arteries and lungs to
contract, and deprive the brain of fresh blood. An oversympathetic
neighbor can put a strong man to bed by discovering signs of nervous
disintegration. Shall we gradually work out a code of mental hygiene
rights and nuisances that will require compulsory notification of the
"blues" and compulsory segregation of every person unable to "smile
dull care away"? Is the time coming when boards of health will
accompany infection leaflets with messages such as this from James
Whitcomb Riley:
Talk health. The dreary, never-changing tale
Of mortal maladies is worn and stale.
You cannot charm or interest or please
By harping on that minor chord, disease.
"Whatever the weather may be," says he,
"Whatever the weather may be,
It's the songs ye sing, and the smiles ye wear,
That's a-making the sun shine everywhere."
Mental hygiene has hitherto enjoyed an evil reputation and has been
condemned to generally evil associations, because the rank and file
have been ignorant of hygiene of every kind. Medical science has so
long enveloped itself in mystery that it is in danger now of becoming
discredited and of falling heir to the mantle of quackery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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