6o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



There develops an insidious tendency to substitute for an efficient way of 

 meeting difficulties a superficial moralizing and self-deception, and an uncanny 

 drift into so many varieties of shallow mysticism and metaphysical ponderings, 

 or into fantastic ideas which can not possibly be put to the test of action. All 

 this is at the expense of really fruitful activity, which tends to appear insignifi- 

 cant to the patient in comparison with what he regards as far loftier achieve- 

 ments. Thus there develops an ever-widening cleavage between mere thought 

 life and the life of actual application such as would bring with it the corrections 

 found in concrete experience. Then under some strain which a normal person 

 would be prepared for, a sufficiently weakened and sensitive individual will react 

 with manifestations which constitute the disorders of the so-called "deterioration 

 process," or dementia prcecox. Unfinished or chronically sub-e.Ticient action, a 

 life apart from the wholesome influence of companionship and concrete test, and 

 finally a progressive incongruity in meeting the inevitably complex demands of 

 the higher instincts — this is practically the formula for the deterioration process.* 



The following is Dr. Meyer's clinical description of a typical case: 



She began school at seven years, was smart, and applied herself well, but 

 at the age of eleven she seemed to be failing and was thought to be studying 

 too hard. She grew thin, seemed nervous, and complained of headaches. At 

 twelve she was in poor health. . . . [later] She was disappointed at home, for 

 some time dreamt of becoming a teacher, but soon sank into hypochondriacal 

 ruminations, and finally, at twenty-one, after useless operations, passed into a 

 confused religious excitement, followed by stupor, in which she sits inactive and 

 irresponsive, with the top-heavy and yet empty notion of being good, of saving 

 the world, etc. 



The next few decades may witness the complete demonstration that 

 such cases can usually be saved by being taken early in hand and 

 trained to more complete activity and appropriate self-objectification. 



But, as already indicated, the importance of this principle of the 

 sanifying influence of wholesome activity does not lie merely or chiefly 

 in the insurance it offers against outright insanity. Sanity, be it re- 

 membered, is a relative term, and therefore the importance of manual 

 training in this connection goes far beyond its prophylactic value as an 

 insurance against admission to an insane hospital. In a sense no one 

 is perfectly sane. A noted American psychologist, after making a care- 

 ful inventory of his absurd crotchets, phobias and other mental ex- 

 travagances, pronounces himself insane on at least seventeen different 

 counts ! It is doubtful whether many of us, if truly honest with our- 

 selves, could make any better claim to perfect sanity. Just as there 

 are millions of physically inefficient persons who are in no immediate 

 danger of death, and relatively few who are perfect of body, so there are 

 no end of people who are in no danger of trial for lunacy, but who 

 nevertheless are decidedly below their own best level of mental balance. 

 Dementia prcecox has been mentioned at length only because it reveals, 

 writ large, what to a less degree is true of most of us. The causes wliich 



'Adolph Meyer, in the Psychological Clinic, 1908, pp. 96-97. 



