Insanity: Its Causes and PreventionStearns, Henry Putnam
Science
Insanity: Its Causes and Prevention
Stearns, Henry Putnam
Psychiatry -- Early works to 1900
That this quality or faculty of his nature has been unwisely used, that it
has been greatly abused; that it has been mis-educated, and often
mis-directed, and too often turned into an instrument for inflicting
suffering and ill, history, alas! makes only too clear; but so have other
faculties of man's mind, and so will they continue to be, except they are
trained and educated toward higher and better purposes; and the problem in
reference to religious belief is, not how to ignore or blot it out, or
ridicule it as a monument of superstitious belief, or explain it away,
but rather how to so educate and strengthen it, that it shall conduce
toward endurance and stability of the brain, and thus render it better
able to bear up under the strain, labors, and harassing disappointments of
life. It appears to me that religious belief may be made one of the most
potent of agencies in this direction, and the following suggestions would
seem to strengthen this view.
First, the laws of health and those of religion go hand in hand; the two
fundamentally agree. There exists a broad basis in the very nature of
man's system, on which to build up religious belief and practice.
Temperance, honesty, obedience to parents, truthfulness, chastity,
recognition of sacred times, and brotherly kindness are no less in
accordance with the laws of bodily and mental health, than they are with
the laws and ordinances of the Christian religion, and when man sins
against one he does also against the other. The two are in harmony with
the constitution of his system, and their observance can conduce only
toward his highest health and consequent happiness. On the other hand, a
failure in their observance, or intemperance, licentiousness, and
dishonesty, no less surely war against the nature of his mental
constitution, and tend toward ill-health.
Again, a religious belief and practice conduce largely toward sustaining
the mind in the experience of suffering and misfortune, and thus are
indirectly of very essential service toward securing and preserving
integrity of mental action.
Account for the fact as we may, the conditions of society are sadly out of
gear. The vast majority of the human race now are, always have been, and
are always likely to be, in a condition largely of dependence. The most
sanguine optimist must admit that long ages will pass, ere that time shall
come when the superior in physical and mental ability shall not use that
superiority for his own advantage, as against that of his less-favored
brother. In the later phases of civilization, this has passed somewhat
from the manifestation of muscular force, but it has only gone over into
that of mental force. Brain now rules where formerly muscle did; and the
man of superior brain, to-day, under the forms and protection of law, and
by virtue of his intelligence, rules over others, and secures his
purposes, as surely as formerly the man of greater physical strength did.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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