Revival: Minds in Distress (1913)

A Psychological Study of the Masculine and Feminine Mind in Health and in Disorder

Adolphus Edward Bridger

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138552616
• eBook ISBN: 9781351338554
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

There are two points from which humanity may be viewed, the bodily and the mental. Hitherto, and for various reasons, medicine has concerned itself almost solely with the physical side of man. The result has been disappointing, for, necessary as it is to be acquainted with the bodily structure in health and in disease, the changes that occur in the latter only represent the physical results of a process, and not the means by which the damage is done. Now the duty of the physician is like that of the pilot; to bring his patient safely into port, availing himself of every agency with that one object in view. Therefore, Mind, in the fullest and widest sense, must be one of his chief studies.

Minds in Distress

Chapter I
The Normal Mind and Mental Balance

WE must first get a clear and concise general idea of Mind.

Many of my readers probably have read the shorter treatises on Psychology by William James, Titchener, Wundt and others. If so, they will have been struck, as I have, by the fact that, when dealing with detached and strictly physiological problems, such as can easily be verified by experiment, the writers are much at home, but that when these have been exhausted, and the stage of generalization has been reached, when the reader is on the tiptoe of expectation, eager for a new and cogent definition of Mind as a going process, the author becomes vague and drifts away into a discussion on Monism, Atomism, Occasionalism, Spiritualism, etc.; in short, he trembles, so to speak, on the confines of Metaphysics, and there he perforce leaves us.

And the reason for this is simple. Body and mind are one and indivisible, but two views of the same entity.

Keep as conscientiously as you may to the physiological, the biochemical and the mechanical, reject every proposition that is not valid in science, yet you come inevitably to a wall, more solid and repellent the stricter you have been with yourself, which bars all further progress, and have to acknowledge with Karl Pearson in his admirable Grammar of Science that the search for ultimate truth on scientific lines leads but eventually to self-contradiction. You start with X as representing the unknown, the vital or the psyche; you work on and seem to get fair representation values in physiology for certain components of X, but you never reach a solution, change your method as you may. Only on the material side are you happy, for with so many data in hand, and such an army of skilled collaborating investigators, you instinctively feel that, in a sensible future, nearly every tissue and function will be ranged and measured, and the body of man, as stationary and inert, fixed in time and space, will come to be represented by a chemico-mechanical formula of great complexity but of definite accuracy, and that, as a final triumph, you may even reasonably expect a day when there will be made a synthetic protoplasm that shall live.

But that will not have solved the problem. You will only have supplied a further instance of what we all know, that when Mind demands anything imperatively, out somewhere from the environment comes tissue to clothe the idea, to give it what we call a material basis, to do, in short, what evolution—whether consciously or not, who shall decide?—has been doing down all the ages and what she is doing daily in the field of physiology, not only by adding and developing new function and tailoring it, but by causing to degenerate and disappear that for which she has no present use. You will have given further proof that Mind, whether represented in the person of modern man armed with weapons of precision, or as a vague creative force omnipresent in all that we call nature, is the great generator, the real causa causans, and that matter is ever an obedient servant that faithfully carries out her commands.

You will have made life and mind. No; you will have made both possible. A great achievement indeed in the popular view though the idea that a great barrier divides the living from the non-living is a purely arbitrary one. None of the roads leads to a real conception of mind in its essence. We measure the force and rate of certain minor functions of the brain, those of the special senses in particular which lend themselves to the process readily, and we work unremittingly onwards to a more intimate knowledge of the cell structure through which mind acts, but only to find the mystery deepening and to realize the enormous gap that exists in this matter between knowledge and understanding.

To obtain any useful basis from which to classify and study mind we have to depend on certain anatomical and physiological facts just as far as they carry us and then to study these ^n the light of wide experience. Only thus shall we find practical guides in our work and obtain any useful general rule that will command the acceptance of all thoughtful men.

The Human Mind.—This is best classified according to its duties into three great parts: the conscious, the subconscious and the reflex, automatic or organic. Acting all together as in normal persons they constitute the Ego. But they must not be thought of as separate except as a matter of convenience in speaking. True, in the average life of man each keeps its place in function, and we thus come to view them as distinct; but there are no fixed and real boundaries, and directly circumstances become unusual the order of this relationship is overthrown and they invade each other’s department and provide us with many extraordinary phenomena. Some minds, being more active than others, or proportioned differently, show this intermingling of function early and under slight stress, and in them—as we shall see—it may reach easily a great development, and indeed with a little trouble, and by arranging our environment, we can induce artificially, and even in persons who are in the enjoyment of normal health, many of these abnormal phenomena as we see in hypnotism and spiritualism.

This contiguity—this close relationship—throughout the body of the three great departments of mind is a matter of importance and must be kept in view, and though we speak anatomically of “ mapped-out areas of the brain,” and of the “ great special centres ” therein, we do this largely as a matter of convenience, for it is not even certain that within the brain reside all the functions of thought; and Dr Charlton Bastian, amongst other authorities, holds that the great ganglia of the sympathetic system, which are chiefly in the abdomen, “ have a large share in the conscious life of the individual and lead.more or less directly to a series of voluntary actions,” whilst the most extensive and destructive disease in the brain, as subsequently viewed in post-mortems, has been present with a practically unimpaired intellect of the sufferer. It is therefore safer to keep in mind the three great mental departments without tying these down at all strictly to special areas in the brain.

At present the conscious department alone concerns us and we shall deal with it on the broadest principles of experience.

Mental Balance.—One arm of this balance is what we may call Common Sense. This consists of our general store of knowledge, a register of our conclusions to date, and though it is being perpetually modified in composition by such new ideas as we accept and absorb, yet is the more stable arm of the balance. It is constantly being kept in a state of general average with other minds by means of contact with the current opinion of the day, a point that is of great practical importance in life, for when an individual, or even a whole group of persons, as in a profession, isolates himself and fails to keep in touch with the world in general, he is in great danger of mental distress, for his standard is lost and with it his sense of proportion. This is one of the great causes of many mental and nervous disorders.

The other arm of the balance, for so we must call it, is made up of the new impressions which in countless variety and from all sources, from our internal organs and from the outside world, reach and are presented to the common sense as to a standard. If the latter be kept active and well stored by-incessant readjustment with the world-mind, and if the nerve tissue on which mind rests as its material basis be healthy and adaptable, very rarely indeed will any fresh impression remain unbalanced, but unnoticed, and I may say almost automatically, find a place in and become a part of the common sense, while even if the new circumstance with its impressions cannot be thus at once and directly assimilated it will create no disorder, for the mind will “ throw out a balance,” as it is called in philosophic language, will adopt a theory that will for the time being bring the two arms of the balance into equilibrium. This state is called “ making up one’s mind.”

Now all this may appear too commonplace to require formal statement, yet on this balancing of the two factors—the normal impression with the common sense—mental comfort depends, and from a want of it far-reaching mental distress arises.

Note how much depends on the soundness and stability of the common sense. If all minds were compounded in exactly similar proportion of the three constituent parts—the conscious, subconscious and automatic—if all nerve tissue were always in a state of similar activity, and if the environment of everyone were equally restricted and exactly alike, then, at least at equal ages, people would all possess an equal common sense, and any serious difficulty from the failure to reach a balance could rarely arise; but there is a wide variation in all the above factors, and consequently an enormous difference in the response to unusual or novel sensations; and the result of this failure to reach an equilibrium is to give rise to phenomena of disorder altogether incomprehensible to persons of different mental capacity and to the world at large, and leads to grave misunderstanding, the failure to balance being wrongly ascribed to some vague agent of disease attacking the body from without, when all the time it is due simply to the fact that the mind (the common sense) of the patient is of different composition to that of the observer and is merely responding in a way normal to itself.

For that reason it is essential to closely study the mental composition of the sufferer from mental distress so as to be able to interpret the symptoms observed, which will usually be found to be only natural under the circumstances and not due to some supposed malignant external agency. Then by effecting a change in the environment, by adapting the latter as closely as possible to the individual needs and requirements, health may often be easily restored, and measures having been taken to eñect a constant healthy contact of the sufferer with the general world-mind, a stable and lasting condition of mental comfort under all ordinary circumstances of life may be secured. Therefore the very simple, elementary balance of which I have spoken must ever be kept in mind.

Now, in the event of novel experience, the throwing out of a balance by the mind to effect an equilibrium in the person of good sound common sense, who lives in free contact with the world-mind, is a simple process leading to no distress. The provisional theory adopted is either affirmed by experience, or if not, the theory is rejected and another conformable to general ideas is adopted. But when the common sense is not of an average and sound order, by reason of the isolation in life of its possessor, or because his mental composition is not in the usually relative proportions, or when the mind is of extreme sensitiveness by inheritance, impressions quite ordinary of their kind and easily balanced in the former may lead in the latter to the adoption of a theory that, while it appears quite right to the individual, is widely at variance with the ordinary world-mind of the day, and for that reason—even independently of isolation—be extremely difficult to correct. Of this nature are the so-called “ Obsessions ” and “ Phobias ” of the Neurasthenic, the grievances to which some persons seem so pertinaciously to cling and the distorted views of the Hysterical. These appear weird and unreal to the man of the world, or even as evidence of a diseased mind, whereas, when all the circumstances of the case are known, they are easily seen to have had a simple origin and to^be natural theories, efforts made by a common sense for some reason out of touch with the ordinary mind of the day but perfectly sound, though often highly sensitive.

These wandering ghosts of ideas that have thus taken their rise, these theories formed naturally to effect a mental balance, become in time accepted more or less as real, and, instead of being corrected by a common sense in contact with the living moving world, themselves become so uppermost in the mind as to pervert it ; so that you get the picture of a man who is strictly sane, and indeed very logical, but all whose arguments, with the consequences that flow from them, are founded on an initial theory which he has never been able to displace, and which has grown and blossomed by isolation and introspection. He has been the victim of self-suggestion, of a disorder of the attention, and can only be cured, as we shall see, by one who will completely unravel the tangle and at the same time place and keep the sufferer in the active, moving world of normal minds.

The aforesaid process has nothing in common with the genesis of the Insane mind; the latter is generally due to a poisoning of the brain tissue by some failure in the defensive powers of the body and the consequent absorption into the blood of poisons generated usually in the bowel. In fact the brain, like the rest of the body, is singularly tolerant of mere mishandling such as occurs in the cases I have sketched, and organic disease is a most unusual consequence thereof, though degeneration may, in later life, be one of the sequences. Thus it happens that Neurasthenia and Hysteria, and other mere failures of mental balance, may be completely recovered from after a course of many years, and are indeed often automatically cured by the choice advent of some overmastering idea, especially by some very strong distressing experience.

Mental balance between the common sense (the formed individual conscious mind) and all novel experience that is presented to it thus means mental comfort, and the want of it mental distress that may, if favoured by circumstance, be of a most far-reaching kind.

Such, in the simplest of language, is the psychic basis from which mental suffering of a functional order takes its rise. The symptoms that ensue depend, as to their character chiefly on the class of mind possessed by the patient, and as to their extent on his or her circumstances in life, especially as to a free or a restricted contact with other normal minds; the active world of working life being the great agent that moulds the human mind, the common sense, and maintains in it a healthy circulation of thought and that fits it for doing its best work.

The following simple illustrations will help to make clear my statements.

A. sees a ghostly figure at night. He knows that it is merely a shadow picture thrown by a magic-lantern and is unconcerned. Or he does not know of the magic-lantern and is upset. His friends persuade him that it is an optical delusion, and as he finds that these are fairly common he accepts the theory and is at rest. Or he cannot accept that theory, but regards the figure as the ghost of a departed friend sent as a warning, consults spiritualists, who advise a recourse to séances to clear up the mystery. He agrees and is soon in a state of advancing “ abnormality.” His common sense is being progressively perverted.

B., a bank clerk leading a routine life and therefore in mental isolation, has a sudden attack of depression with fear of loss of self-control. It is due to a cause unknown to him but really quite simple, an acute liver congestion. Instead of consulting a doctor, who would have told him that such attacks are quite common and what they arise from, and that a blue pill, a Turkish bath, a little care in diet, and an occasional game of golf, would correct matters and keep him free of such experiences, he adopts the theory of incipient insanity, and by reading up the latter subject persuades himself that he is right. He gets sick-leave and further isolates himself. The false theory is followed out logically in all directions and he becomes at last, by incessant thought on the subject, and by association with sympathizers, a miserable hypochondriac.

These examples make clear two facts of great importance, viz., that novel impressions which concern ourselves closely have a far greater effect than others in disturbing our mental comfort and balance, and that isolation favours introspection and often leads to the adoption of a theory which appears to others out of all reasonable proportion to the symptoms, for the standard of the isolated man is a falsified one.

Chapter II
The Masculine Type of Mind

IN conversation about the ordinary affairs of life, and more especially in discussions on formal topics, whether of politics, ethics, or art in any form, you will remark that educated people may readily be divided into two main classes: the one very practical, who demand proof before they accept a conclusion and rely only on facts, evidently regarding a so-called fact as a final truth; the other class who live in a different plane of thought altogether, who assert that the effect will be so-and-so, who see the end to be attained and seem to be little concerned with the process by which it is reached, and much devoted to ideals. Among the former will be found the plodding, steady people who achieve financial success, or at least stability; among the latter the brilliant, artistic, creative and the spiritual. The genius is of the latter class.

Of course the dividing line between the two classes is not a hard-and-fast one; some have mental characteristics that are a blend of both types in various proportion. The first class is that endowed with the Masculine type of mind. Speaking generally the Englishman, the Lowland Scot and the North-Country Irishman are good specimen proofs of this order, and many even of their womenfolk are thus mentally constructed. Scien...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Original Title
• Original Copyright
• PREFACE
• CONTENTS
• Chapter I. The Normal Mind and Mental Balance
• Chapter II. The Masculine Type of Mind
• Chapter III. The Feminine Type of Mind
• Chapter IV. Neurasthenia
• Chapter V. The Treatment, Etc., of Neurasthenia
• Chapter VI. Hysteria
• Chapter VII. Hysteria
• Chapter VIII. Hysteria
• Chapter IX. Mental Formulæ
• Index