MENTAL DEFECTIVES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 31 August 1928, Page 8

MENTAL DEFECTIVES

PEOPOSED LEGISLATION THE PROFESSORS' i CATECHISM I (To the Editor.) Sir, —It has been well said that a fool can ask' more questions in live minutes than a wise man cau answer sm a year. What, then, must bu the position of a humble individual like myseii, with no pretence to wisuom,' bul merely the pos; a'esaion of ordinary common-sense, applied to a careiul smuy 01 cue prooiom uuuer investigation ("tne treatment 01 mental deficiency"), when he is assailed witn a perwcc lusmade ot questions from twenty one persons, all very connuent 01 themselves, ol whom ten are university graduates and lour ot these processors.' Ul these erudite persons tiie most conndent lot their own wisdom are the proiedsors ot psychology, mueed, they may be said to ciaun, uy the mouth of tneir chiei spokesman, i'roiessor ii'itt, a monopoly of wisdom in regard to this vitally important matter. Xhcy were not consult[ed m regard, to the framing of the Bill, therefore, it is a bad Bill and must be dropped. / It is not proposed to have a board of psychologists, and therefore the board provided tor m the Bill is wrongly constituted, and cannot be expected to do any good. Salvation, if it is to be attained at all, can come only from the psychologists. And they must be pure psychologists of th- laboratory type. The Bill provides for at least two trained psychiatrists on the board. A psychiatrist nowadays must take psychology as part of his course. But then he has a lengthy medical training as well, and he must have had actual practical experience of dealing with the insane and with mental defectives. To the professors those are fatal disqualifications. "Let Dr. Gray," says Professor Fitt, in ono ; ot'Jiis articles, "show how the psychiatrist is in any way equal to the highlytrained experimental psychologist for this work. The whole position adopted is nothing less than scandalous. The day has gone for ever when the medical man can be, or one would hope should wish to be, not only doctor, but also clergyman and psychologist." This is a god example of the contused ideas which these learned persons have with egard to the Bill and. the method of working it. The psychiatrist who is to examine the cases in the first, instance is to be associated with a specially qualified teacher . and social worker. The psychiatrists on the board are to be associated with representatives of the Education Department, • social workers, and other lay persons with special knowledge, but the' presence of the psychiatrist in Professor Fitt's eyes is sufficient to damn both the clinic and the board. It is as if one should argue that the diagnosis and treatment of the :sick in our hospitals should be entrusted to the experimental physiologist working in a laboratory, and trained surgeons and physicians should be rigidly tabooed. . That I fully realise the value of psychologists in their proper place may be gathered from the fact that the Committee of Inquiry recommended the appointment of psychological experts in the Education Department, and that further provision be made in our universities and training colleges for the education of teachers in child psychology. But the problem of mental deficiency is far too complex to be solved by the psychologist alone. ■■ Unfortunately there is nothing practical about the psychologists. They don't profess to have arrived at any solution of the terrible problem which undoubtedly exists. They say that what la wanted is more research—by the psychologists—apd that nothing should be attempted until they have agreed on the scientific principles involved, otherwise it is almost certain tha. wrong. thing will be done. The research which has been going on tor years seems to be unknown to them. They appear quite unaware of the English KyyaJ Commission which investigated tl)e question for four years, both in England and. in America, and presented a very definite report both as to the existence of the grave menace to the nation, and the means which should be-taken to cope with it,. They have not a single constructive idea in connection with the present Bill. They take especial exception to the definition, of "social defectives," but ean Jt or won't suggest anything better to take its place. HevertiriK to the long list of questions which the professors' have addressed to the Government and to myself, sometimes to one and sometimes to the other, 1 find them a little puzzling because the professors occasionally address me as if I were the Government who brought in the Bill. This may be flattering, but is decidedly confusing, and like some other assumptions of the professors, -is not m accordance with , fact: I was not consulted about the measure and never saw it until it was laid on the table of. the House. As it was largely in accordance with < ho recommendations of the Committee of Inquiry, I had no hesitation in congratulating the Government on -bringing it down. I also did my best cp (fear away the misconception wjiioh reMfed from the hasty criticisms of those who rushed to the attack without having read the complete text of the Bill, and without reading the report of Dr. Gray, which outlines in detail the policy which is to be carried out in administering the Act. The action of the Government seems to me the more worthy of praise, because it required gome courage on the eye of an election to bring in a Bill which is not ljkejy to give them many vptes, but which, as the event showed, was capable of being' distorted and misrepresented to their disadvantage.B Curiously enough, those, who were the offenders in'this respect were not the politicians. It is only due tp the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Efolland, and his lieutenant, Mr. Fraser, to aay that their criticisms were legitimate criticisms, although one might not agree with them, and that their speeches showed that they had taken the trouble to study the Bill, !the reports bearing upon it, and some of the standard literature on ,the subject. . The' obvious objection to, the budget of questions concocted by the professors is. that they are not asked for the sake of obtaining' information, but as a further means of creating a popular prejudice, against the Bill. ■ Question 3 suggesting the possibility of normal persons who are related to mental defectives being placed on the register is. a flagrant case' of this kind. ' .■: . \ Because I quoted leading authorities to the effect that feeblermjndedncss is; at the root of chronic pauperism, I am accused of saying that there can be.no poverty from want of work during periods of trade depression or frpm sjeliuess or sheer misr fortune;' that it follows from my argument that tlje majority pf children of very poor parents must be feeble-minded (!) and finally that lam casting,a slur on the popiv es't classes' likely to prbrnpte class hatred! Needless to say, by chronic paupers I meant the class who generation, after generation seem incapable of the.will to work or the capacity to fend for themselves; who while themselves living on charitable aid are producing children who have to be. ] taken charge of by the State, and, who, even after ■ training hi special schools are in the majority of cases never able to support themselves, but who, under the present system, will be allowed to multiply the type indefinitely. Such families are costing us many thousands a year in hard cash, to say nothing of the addition to the sum of human misery, degradation, and wretchedness. ■ There are other similar examples of disingenuous controversy, such as one expects from politicians of the baser sort, but is surprised to find associated with those bearing' honoured names in the world of education There is one question which has been put "to me more than once by the professors which is a legitimate question ajthough it should not have been necessary. I am asked for evidence to support my statement as. to able-bodied but shiftless persons having been taken from the workhouses of England and brought out here as immigrants. On page 29 of the report of the 1024 committee will be found an qxtrap't from the report in ISS4 of. Dr. jrfircgor, Inspector-Genera) of Hospital?, complaining of tlje degraded class of immigrants being brought out, including mmates of workhouses, and adding: It should never bn forgotten" that the evil caused by the introduction of this class is pever finished. The impaired' health, low morality ami insanity descends tp the offspring and are a continual drain upon the community," On page Sof the snmc report is a statement by. the 'Might Hon. Sir Robert Stout, th«n ChinE Justice, and president of the Prisons Board, to tl)e