MENTAL HYGIENE

Hokitika Guardian, 13 March 1931, Page 5

MENTAL HYGIENE

BOOK AND ITS SEQUEL

(Contributed by the Mental Hospitals’

Department.)

Mr Clifford W. Beers, author of a remarkable book, “A, Mind that Found and founder of the successful international mental hygiene movement, will arrive at Auckland on March 23, by the Aorangi, and will spend several weeks in New Zealand. Mr Beers was a New Haven boy who graduated from Yale University, United States, in 1897, and in 1900 broke down mentally, and became a patient' in a mental hospital. In September, 1203, after a little over three years of mental illness, he recovered. So far, the experience was by no means an unusual one. The wonders were to follow. For this recovered mental patient did not put his sufferings behind him and strive to forget them. He remembered his own experience, and he remembered the hundreds of thousands who were going through similar experiences, and would go through them in years to come. With recovered sanity, he retained the crusading zeal of his period of abnormal mental life. He abandoned his business career to devote his life to the cause of the prevention and better treatment of mental disease. He had the courage to set down and publish every detail of his experience. "A Mind that Found Itself” has now gone through fifteen editions, and is regarded by competent authorities as a classic. LEADING MENTAL SPECIALISTS. The mental hygiene movement has spread to all the civilised countries of the world, and is supported hv leading mental specialists in all lands. Its object is, as stated, the .prevention and cure of mental disorders, and to ameliorate the care of the mentally ill The value of Mr Beer’s book was immediately recognised by prominent public men, including mental specialists. Mr William .Tames, the noted author, wrote Mr Beers as follows: “You hare handled a difficult theme with great skill, and produced a narrative of absorbing interest to scientists as well as to laymen. It reads like fiction, but it is not, fiction; and this I state emphatically, knowing how prone the uninitiated are to doubt the truthfulness of description of abnormal mental processes. I think that .your tenacity of purpose, foresight, tact, temper, discretion, and patience are beyond .all praise, and I esteem it an honour to have been in any way associated with you. Your name will loom big hereafter, and your movement must prosper.” “SURPASSING EXPECTATIONS. ’

The success, far 'surpassing all expectations, of the first international congress on mental hygiene recently held at Washington was striking evidence of the great progress of the movement for mental health, Public interest Ima been awakened to ’ the magnitude, urgency, and importance of the problem in this field, Never wn,s there a movement more timely and more needed, for it is apparent that with the complex conditions of modern life, the future progress of society as well as the welfare of the individual, are dependent as never before upon healthy minds capable of sound reasoning and intelligent thinking. Mental hygiene presents to-day the leading health problem of the world.

Although the main object of Mr Beers in visiting New Zealand is to enjoy a holiday and rest, he will deliver public addresses at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin on the mental hygiene movement. A tentative itinerary of his visit has been arranged. Dr. Ralph Noble, the well known mental specialist of Sydney, and a member of the International Mental Hygiene Committee, will make a special visit to New Zealand to take part in tile welcome to Mr Beers, and will accompany him during part of his tour.

The Director-General of Mental Hospitals and the Departmental officers are co-operating with the New Zealand Committee of Mental Hygiene to ensure the success of M” Beers’ stay in New Zealand. One of the object r of Mr Beers in coming to New Zealand is to stimulate and help to focus : • terest in mental hygiene work in New Zealand. During the past fifty years a remarkable advance has been made in preventive medicine’, especially in the practical elimination of many infectious diseases. It is reasonable to anticipate that similar far-reaching results will follow organised efforts in tho field of mental hygiene.