SOCIAL FACTORS IN MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 279 



undemonstrative person and whose father, although very fond of the pa- 

 tient apparently shared with the mother the idea that any idea remotely 

 concerned with sex should be repressed, and he came to have a definite 

 obsession centering about this. The daughter absorbed his attitude from 

 her earliest childhood and though later she became intellectually emanci- 

 pated from it, when she fell in love with a man, the association of sexual 

 love with ideas of wrong had been so strongly made that in spite of a good 

 adjustment up to this time, she was unable to enjoy any demonstration of 

 affection from him and gradually drew away enjoying, however, imaginary 

 love-scenes which became more real to her than her surroundings, and 

 finally, came to live in them almost entirely. 



This case also illustrates the third point. Namely, that the conflict 

 arising out of the milieu may be intensified by increased experience and 

 knowledge of the world which may make the person realize that what he 

 has accepted differs from the ideas of his group. He wants to be like them, 

 and if he is "normal," he will throw off the unhealthy ideas of his childhood. 

 If not strong enough, there may be several alternatives. Such a person as 

 that described above might, under certain circumstances, enter a convent 

 at a relatively early age and lead a useful and happy life. If circumstances 

 were not favorable for an acceptable retreat and the conflict became too 

 sharp, a breakdown is the result. In the first instance, on the family chart 

 there would be no nervous disease indicated, in the second, a clear cut case. 

 And it is here that the fallacy in much of the genealogical work becomes 

 apparent. 



In the fourth place, it is rare to find a home in which there is an emotion- 

 ally unstable parent, where there is not a lack of harmony, and a feeling of 

 insecurity and fear that may have far reaching results. This was clearly 

 shown in the case of a girl of fifteen who felt that nothing was worth while 

 and was depressed and suicidal. The mother, a schizophrenic, was in a 

 mental hospital but had only been removed when the girl was twelve, though 

 she had been irrational at times for at least ten years. The need for the 

 child to assume the responsibility for the two younger children and the 

 mother, the fantastic demands made on her, and the lack of all security 

 gave her a constant feeling of inadequacy which was not lost even when the 

 pressure was removed, and added to her fear of insanity. It only went after 

 a long period of treatment which brought out the profound effect on her of 

 these earlier experiences and their place in the development of her own 

 sickness. 



These four points are intended merely to represent some of the possibili- 

 ties by which the interaction between environment and inherent trends 



