TOPICS FOR WOMEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 70, 19 September 1936, Page 19

TOPICS FOR WOMEN

A serious warning to parents, if they have any real affection and interest in their children, was given at a meeting in-London by Dr. Emanuel Miller, M.A., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., D.P.M., vicepresident of the Institute for the Scientific Treatment of Delinquency and Psychiatrist at the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases With all this successful gaining of diplomas for expert knowledge, this doctor ought to be able to give a valuable opinion on the modern treatment of delinquency. He began by saying that the scientific approach to the subject of crime and delinquency both in children and adults was a comparatively new study, and it was impossible to be dogmatic about the findings and claims, as men in other fields of science have a right to be. Whether he was exactly correct in this last saying may be open to a little doubt, for the world of science seems to most people to be opening up with new wonders every day, and what was

the : apparent ■ "end of the road" one year proved to be only a milestone in the next.

■ The doctor showed by illustrative cases that remedial measures were possible and that the community could be' saved a large amount of expense, and could also retrieve for normal citizenship a reasonable number of people who would otherwise drift into crime and become a social danger. What most people know is that the first years of life in children are governed by physical heeds. It was that deprivation of suitable food would lead a young child to steal, and that in -various grades of society. There were other reasons, of course. Take orchard robbers, for instance, that was

The Scheme of Things By M.H.C.

done for mischief, and with a mistaken sense of fun—and apart from real hunger. Children would take, sugar often, a food that was necessary for complete nutritional satisfaction, and it had been found that the acts ceased when the necessary article of food was provided. The thefts of small sums of money occurred in order to purchase articles of diet, such as sweets, etc., because of their sugar content. Then, again, disturbances of nutrition would produce, not the habit of stealing, but irritability, bad temper, and in some cases, wandering. Rebellion against a parent who had not provided for the child's physical needs might be only a symptom of this underlying physical need.

There was also, he said, the case of the child suffering from a constitution- ' al disability, such as difficulty in walking, short sight, and other matters which handicapped him at school. Such

a child might feel a creature apart and try to win social recognition by doing something- startling, i This feeling of inferiority had also been found to exist as the. result. of. a parent or doctor limiting. a child's freedom of movement, owing, perhaps, to disease of the heart. A natural rebellion might foUow hot, only.the limitations but because of the disease itself. Educational - and intellectual retardation were frequent causes of delinquency. It needed skilled mental testing to determine 'the minor degrees of backwardness which produced disturbances in the life of the child. Even iri adults the,idea of inability to compete with their fellows caused sometimes nervousness, and at others.anti-social attempts to obtain adjustments, which, to a

normal intelligence, would be found through ' recognised social • channels. Moral ideals'and the power of judgment grew naturally in the normal person in the right environment, but the backward child was a great problem because his power of intellectual analysis was so limited, and in consequence the moral ideal failed to grow into a coherent system of controls. When the call of instinct was strong there was no moral force ready to control it. In these conditions the child was temperamental and slow and was likely to become neurotic, whereas the child with the more "out-going" temperament would indulge in a refractory type of behaviour which made for delinquency.

Because people were all "human beings" the same kind of reactions were expected by some people but modern study had shown that mankind is most varied. If certain persons were forced into environments which were unsuitable to their make-up, they made adjustments which were not always healthy ones. This idea was developed at some length in regard to people who longed for a quiet life, while others desired companionship, gaiety, movement, and a certain kind of excitement. In either case the person might become a delinquent member. The learned doctor showed the necessity for the home and general environment of young delinquents to be studied before any decision was made against their liberty, or in allocating punishment of any kind. 111-health, physical "and mental, resulted from unhygienic and unhappy surroundings. Absence of the help of sunlight, room for play) social intercourse, and sleep frequently lead to neurosis and rebelliousness, seeking new outlets for expression, and sometimes the seeking of new companions.

Behind all this physical environment stood the family. It was clear that the moral nature of the child was a function of the moral influences of the parents themselves. Lack of home harmony was only too often the cause of drift—moral' and social—of the members of a family, as it meant the nonestablishment of standards of social conduct in the eyes of the young. Then there followed the lack of cohesion of affection between the members of the family, and less chance of "neighbourliness." The sense of not being loved was so frequently the psychological core of the young delinquent's mind that it was almost axiomatic that the wanderings and truancies of young delinquents (not to mention , their drifts into other forms of erratic behaviour), were a search for environment, real or imaginary, where the' wanted affection could be found. In the course of such wanderings the young offender drifted into strange company and thence into strange and anti-social behaviour.

This is a very interesting study in social matters, and those who have had to do with delinquency will agree altogether with the learned speaker as to the fact (demonstrated over and over again) that the lack of decent home life lays the foundation of most, of the delinquency known. There are, of course, strange cases of "throwbacks," or of dual personality, but these are not common. Science has still some way to go to discover-the cause and treatment of such, but the sooner science is brought to bear on delinquency, the sooner will the world be free of social misfits, who are miserable in themselves, and a menace to their fellow-creatures.