LITERATURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19505, 13 June 1925, Page 4

LITERATURE.

HEALTH AND WAR.* NATIONAL NEURASTHENIA. By Constant Readeb. The addresses delivered by eminent medical men before the Congress of American doctors now assembled In London reveal a variety of opinion. Illustrating the old adage of Alexander Pope: “Who shall decide when doctors disagree?” There Is a consensus of opinion, however, concerning the strain and stress of modern life in so far as the individual is concerned, and the concern is all tho mere intense since the) doctrine is now being promulgate ! that war is the direct outcome of national stress and strain affecting the group men - tality of countries and peoples. A highly instructive examination into this doctrine is to bo found in Miss Caroline K. Playne’s treatise on “The Neuroses of tho Nations” Miss Playne speedily discovered that the investigation was too wide to be comprehended in a single volume. She found it necessary to restrict her inquiry to the pre-war years 1889-1914, and again to limit the area to France and Germany, “tho two great nations, whoso historical rivalry was the primary factor In bringing on the years of strife.” But she hopes to add a sequel to the present volume dealing with a similar study of the neuroses of England. Miss Playne takes for her starting point the fact that, for years before the war. tlie paoa at which life was lived quickened in an alarming way, and that during the years 1904-1914 the speeding up was intensified. “To-day,” writes Miss Playne, “the ordinary educated man probably receives more fresh impressions thrust on his attention in one day than his grandfather did In a week or even a mouth. His nerve ends receive sense-stimulations showered on them, shot at them in continual-torrents, whilst his grandfather’s nervous system hurl to deal with sense-stimulations arriving in what, by comparison, may be likened to a slow-going stream.” Miss Playne takes up the position that modern men and women are unable happily to bear the ever-increasing wear and teari The consequences of such failure a»e vividly outlined; — Is it then possible to slacken the pace of life by modern conditions? Is it desirable that it should be slackened? According to present indications, if it is not slackened, if it ever grows faster, must it but end in catastrophe or collapse? Will something happen to pull up the headlong rush? Will some dens ex maebina intervene to save? All these questions seem to demand more attion than they usually receive. The Great' War came after 40 years, during which war had been held at bay among tho countries ’ which represent modern civilisation in Europe. In some respects and for a time tho War apparently brought relief. Social conventions which had harassed social life for generations were swept away. Manners which took up room in social intercourse evaporated. Customs which made a demand on the time and attentipn of past generations vanished. Tho tension lessened —there was relief. This relief lasted a twinkling of an eye/after which the cataract of sensestimulations dashed more torrentially than ever. It became quite clear that men’s neryous systems could not stand the wear and tear. There was no doubt that the pace of life had affected men’s minds in a disastrous way, judging by their temper. This was especially apparent wherever men were collected in clusters, in concourses, in parties, in self-conscious national groups; for these groups, these collectivities were so excited that their emotions were out of hand, uncontrolled and uncontrollable. They became possessed of manias and ruled by anxiety—fear. suffered from strange inhlblin moral directions. Passions ami emotions, primitive in character, which human society had conquered or sublimated possessed men’s souls afresh. There-are further questions. Are these great neuroses the result of tho release afforded by the War? Or were crowds already sick? Is not the War the outcome and consequence of the neuroses ■which affected men’s minds in the prewar period? Mias Playne has aimed at making a contribution towards tho psychological study of the collective mind in Germany and France during the decisive pre-war years. In io doing, she accepts the conception of the crowd-mind as a collective mentality—viz., the idea that “any society is literally a mote or less organised mental system.” This group-mentality responds readily to its environment, and during periods of general nervous excitement is subject to derangement, manifesting itself in masshysteria, crowd-folly, and mob-madniss, culminating on occasion in “social and national insanity.’’ “These derangements are exhibited_ in the literature, in the art of the time, in political action, in the mentality and behaviour of leaders of nations, in tho teaching of inspirers of groups. They are seen to be profound and far-reaching.” The remedy suggested is the building up of “preventive psychiatry” with regard to the terrible “complex” of war as it develops in the rtiind of men. In this connection Miss Playne quotes from Dr J. T. MaoCurdy’s introduction to his essay on “The Psychology of War”: “Preventive psychiatry is beginning to shoV its fruits; it is therefore not illogical to entertain a hope that similar efforts may ultimately prevent war.” , Stress is laid on the .fact that the wars of tho past were' largely excited through the influence of leaders of men “who bent the wills of lesser men to fight in pursuance of their personal aims and ambitions.” In contrast the Great War of 1914-1918 is distinguishable as “one of the few wars which may be traced to tho play of particular motions of group minds rather than to the influence and inspiration of outstanding individuals. _ Certain currents of group-emotional passion and mental aberration carried tho leaders in the different countries off their feet,, till, unwillingly in some cases, unwittingly in bthors, these same leaders found themselves in the bewildering midst of the waves of a mass-emotional flood.” The contention running through this exhaustive study is that “not only were the national group minds unhinged by 4ho immensity of the excitement after war had broken out, but that the different national groups suffered from mass-neuroses for some decades before group-dementia held them in their grip as the war developed. And further, that the Great War, its universal upheaval and drawn-out strife, were not only induced, but continued, as a consequence of the moral and mental derangements of tho mass-mind among the different nations.’’ It is argued that the study of these social maladies is one of tho most important that can bo undertaken, seeing that* its practical implications concern the wellbeing of human society. “The very continuance of human society,” says Miss •“iayno, “may be contingent on the recognition of social neurosis.” From these neuroses both the individual and the masses are suffering to an unprecedented extent and the study of the symptoms and development of the disease is of tho highest importance. Among the symptoms which appear before tho period of mental discomposure becomes acute, Miss Playne notes the decline of intellectuality as shown in the paucity of first-rate writers, artists, actors, statesmen, indeed of men of understanding and eminence in all callings. Again : “Not only in the world of thought, but in the region of morality, society was on the downward grade.” A further symptom was the gradual deterioration in the tone of the mass mind in most of tho more developed centres of civilisation. “If any. one.” writes Mass Playne, “well acquainted with the manners of society and the ordinarily accepted standards of taste in anv one or other of the great cities of Western Europe, 4D years ago, found themselves, for some reason or other, returning to the familiar life of such a city during the early years of tho ccnturv, and again Jiving the life of the city they formerly knew, well, they could not fail to note lowered standards of morals and tastes and coarsened habits and manners, although those who had continuously inhabited the same city probably failed to mark considerable difference in these respects.” Numerous other instances are appended of the way in which life was disordered and society unanchored. Tho frequency with which panics arose is pointed out as one of tho danger signals of the imsw • and under their influence wore made unprecedented warlike preparations. “It was md*«ed,” exclaims Miss Playne, ‘a neurasthenic world which strove io fortify the chan grog order of society by spending eohefasncxj in the piling un of qrwtnictir* parwoentfre engines. Profess-

ing to make life safe, men in their madness made it all too dangerous.” Other symptoms are set down in the following terms : The demon ot. neurasthenia makes you collect'books in bunches from circulating libraries. Any self-respecting, well setup family requires a varied dozen or so to be brought into the house per week. The demon of the restless nervous “anxiety” state of the group mind is more worried about leisure than about business hours. Many and various are the devices for propitiating the demons of rush and push. . . Sundays are specially filled up, thus sotting the tone of the week to the keyboard of perpetual motion. The prevailing manner of speech l>etrays the prevailing age. and perhaps more clearly than anything else. Curious assertive phrases arc in vogue. . . _ Of all the signs of the leisured play of intellect this aversion to abstract reasoning or generalised statement is one of the most widely diffused. Each of the symptoms enumerated reacts on tlie rest until the social malady spreads and increases. Miss Playne contends that before the outbreak of war no one was quite sane. “Therefore, while former wars were fought, on more or less clearly recognisable grounds to help the ambitions of leading men—in the defence of freedom—on account of religious faiths—to further racial expansion—in pursuit of military honour and glory—the reasons for tho Great War are intangible and have to bo sought out.” A comment in this connection carries its moral':— Tho study of nervous and mental deterioration, whether of tho individual or the group, is never an agreeable study. Yet such study is as necessary when it is the group mind that is affected as it is when individuals are the sufferers. Tho symptoms of mass madness must be recognisable if, in future, preventive measures are to be taken at an early stage. They must bo recorded, in order that methods may bo devised for dealing with general disorders. It is more necessary to avoid, stem, or heal ‘neurosis on a collective scale than it is to come to the aid of individuals suffering nervously and mentally. For this reason tho remembrance of tho conditions prevailing at tho period of the Great War needs preserving. It is of particular importance, of course, that the manias and depravities of one nation should not be unduly magnified, and the manias and depravities of other nations glossed over or minimised. It will bo found that the subtler forms of the malady, shown in some countries, are not only more interesting to study, but they call for closer attention, for they are less evident though perhaps farther reaching. The universal neurosis which endangered society has its analogy if not its physical counterpart, in that plague of nervous character which scourged the world during that period—influenza. Influenza occurred repeatedly: it played havoc here, there, and everywhere, assuming different forms, and displaying varying symptoms. It died down but never quite disappeared; it Dared up and ran its course, with more or loss violence, till finally, in tho midst of the world-war, it gathered full strength and ravished tho farthest ends of tho earth. In the 1917-1918 outbreaks the victims, who succumbed to this nervous plague, were more in number than those slain by all the fighters in the course of the great fratricidal war of modern history. On these premises Miss Playne proceeds to a detailed- diagnosis of the respective social maladies of Germany and France. “ There is little difficulty,’ 1 she declares, “in tracing tho group-neuxosis of Germany, for Germany more than most countries may bo said to wear her heart , upon her sleeve.” Following an outline of the nature and symptoms of tho German neurosis comes an account of its origin andgrowth as revealed in history; and German militarism is shown as the festering ground of tho natural neurosis, this loading in its turn to the. Pan-Gorman intoxication. And the influence of tho German rulers is stressed aa aiding tho spread of the social malady. Tho nervous disorders of the cxKaiser are dealt with fully “ not. only because he suffered badly from the preva lent malady, not only because his mental failure reacted on the German group-mind —hut because he furnishes a well-recorded example of tho features -and symptom? of the type of neurosis which plagued the world both by attacking individuals and affecting the mass mind.” Miss Playne diagnoses the case of France in exactly the same manner as she has dealt with Germany. She describes the growth of French neurosis as manifested in social life, educational ideals, and current art; and its characteristics ns set forth in literature and as revealed in history and politics. A final chapter compares tho respective group'-neuroses of Franco and Germany. The conditions which ensued are summed up under throe heads: 1. In every country there is a moaning chorus—War is inevitable. 2. In every country such nervous tension exists that the temperature seems to approximate the boiling point. 3. Everyone craves something, but no one quite 1 knows what. Miss Playne’s study of the social malady which affects Europe is a marvel of concentration which, beginning pessimistically, ends in an optimistic note. Tho book stands out as a pioneer in psychological history writing. At one time history was restricted to the being and doing of the rulers; then it extended to tho lives of tho peoples; henceforth it must include the psychology of tho group-mind. Ending her examination at the outbreak of tho Great War. Miss Playne concludes:— Ten years have passed and sanity is not yet regained in either of the two countries whose career towards folly wo have been following. Tho moral and mental decline, traceable at least from the year 1889, was slow. The recovery must needs bo slow also; as the malady was long in developing, tho recovery can only come in course of time. Yet a* despair nurtured madness, so restoration of hope may forward cure. The soul of man may perchance be permanently alienated, but in the soul of a nation there .remains ground for recovery, and the recurring urge of the human race, in the long wn, makes for health.