Heredity
When we consider the accumulated possibilities for disorder which the
family tree of almost any one of us can show, the wonder is not that
there are so many nervous or insane, but rather that any come within
hailing distance of the normal. For multitudes are born of parents whose
bodies were food poisoned or alcohol or drug poisoned, and whose nervous
systems were tense and irritable, oversensitive, and suffering from the
parentage; some are possibly even of paranoic or dementia praecox
lineage; while many of our finest and best had psychopathic or
neuropathic heredity. Syphilis, itself, and the underpower bodies of
tuberculosis are heritages of many.
When we realize, too, that we are born with certain inherent tendencies
of temperament, which are too often of the melancholic or overcholeric
type, our wonder grows that we are not doomed to defeat at birth. Were
it not for the possibilities in the germ-plasm of choosing the much of
good also in our heredity, often enough to overbalance the bad, and for
the proved power of environment and training to modify or even
altogether overcome the harmful parts of our birthright, there would be
little hope for many.
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Accuracy Of Perception
The beginning of learning is perception. Keen, accurate perception at the time of first introduction of a new fact or thought, and the linking up of that new material with something already in consciousness, insures in the normal mind the ability to... Association Of Ideas
After the first few years of life practically nothing enters consciousness that cannot by some likeness or contrast or kinship be connected with something already there. Were it not for this saving economy memory would be helpless. So the nurse who ... Concentration
How to Study.--You learn sooner or later from experience that the quickest and best way to learn anything new is to give it your undivided attention at the moment; to perceive one thing at a time and to perceive it as something that is definite, or ... Consciousness
We took a glimpse at random into the mental life of an adult consciousness, and found it very complicated, constantly changing. We found it packed with shifting material, which, on the surface, seemed to bear very little relation. We found reason,... Consciousness In Delirium
At this time of our study it will suffice to say that in delirium and in insanity, which we might very broadly call a prolonged delirium, the toxic brain becomes a house in disorder. The censor is sick, and sequence and coherence are lost as the thr... Consciousness In Sleep
Sleep seldom, if ever, is a condition of utter unconsciousness. We so frequently have at least a vague recollection, when we wake, of dreaming--whether or not we remember the dream material--that we are inclined to accept sleep as always a state of ... Consciousness Is Complex
The one fact we want at this stage of our inquiry is simply this: that consciousness, awaking at birth, very soon becomes complex. However single and simple in content immediate consciousness may be, it is so intimately linked with all preceding exp... Development Of Reason And Will
Later still, when the child is older, we may have somewhat the following mechanism: "Sweets, good, want, taste; spank, hurt; don't care, spank not hurt much, maybe never found put, sweets very good." Now the child is reasoning and choosing between... Disorders And Perversions
Life would be a very simple proposition if the mental machinery always worked right. But this is peculiarly subject to damage both from without and from within. From without it may be damaged by the toxins of food, as in the acute toxic psychoses; b... Emotional Equilibrium
Suppose that when you first enter the ward you are wishing with all your heart you had never decided to become a probationer. Perhaps the white screen and its possible meaning has so frightened you that your thoughts refuse to go beyond it. Suppose ... Environment
While environment may prove the saving grace from poor heredity, it may itself add heavily to the debit side. With the very best of health backgrounds, environment may damage body and mind beyond repair. Under environment we include everything that ... Getting The Other Man's Point Of View
Our points of view are very frequently merely hereditary or acquired prejudices, hence altogether emotional rather than rational. We only with great difficulty see things through another man's eyes. It necessitates comprehending his background fully... Habit Is A Conserver Of Effort
It is always easier to follow a beaten path than to break one's way through untrodden forests. It is easier to walk after we "learn how," and learning how is simply doing it over and over until the legs and feet have acquired habits of motion and ac... Heredity
When we consider the accumulated possibilities for disorder which the family tree of almost any one of us can show, the wonder is not that there are so many nervous or insane, but rather that any come within hailing distance of the normal. For multi... Judgment
The conclusion or decision that reason has reached we call a judgment. The youth who decides against the sweet between meals, we say, has good judgment. And we base our commendation on the proved fact that sweets are real fuel, giving abundantly of ... Memory
No mind retains consciously everything that has ever impressed it. It is necessary that it put aside what ceases to be of importance or value and make way for new impressions. We found early in our study that the subconscious never forgets, but harb... Necessity Of Adaptability
Adaptability is as essential to life of mind as to life of body; and health of mind as well as health of body is determined by the individual ability to adjust himself to environment. There are dreamers who have lived in their ideal world so long ... Normal Emotional Reactions
Some emotions, that seem exaggerated at first thought, may be normal under the circumstances. For no one can know the whole background for emotional response in the life of another. After being long shut up in a darkened room, with bandaged eyes and... Nursing The Deluded Patient
The nurse soon realizes the uselessness of attempting to argue a patient out of his delusions, of trying to convince him that the things he sees and hears and perhaps tastes and feels, are but hallucinations. Her very insistence only fastens his att... One Thought Can Be Replaced By Another
If we control attention we control thought, and with the suggestible patient this principle depends upon the one just now considered. Hope and courage-breeding thoughts can replace despairing and fearful ones, but it will be only when attention is d... Organs Of Consciousness
Nothing is known to us until it has been transmitted to the mind by the senses. The nerves of special sense, of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, the temperature sense ("hot or cold" sense), the muscular sense (sense of weight and position), th... Personal Reactions
What will decide whether a human being can resist, successfully, bad tendencies in heredity, or in environment, or in both, and keep a reasonably balanced mind? It demands insight, ambition, will; and if these remain the body can be forced to saving... Psychology And Health
In the use of its functions the mind manifests certain powers and certain modes of expression which can act as powerful allies or as damaging enemies of health. We speak of man as adaptable, but also as a being of habits. We speak of him as "feeli... Reaction Proportioned To Stimuli
In the normal mind the emotional or feeling accompaniment of thought and action is proportionate and adequate to the circumstances, i. e., there is a certain feeling, of a certain strength, natural to every thought and act; and when only that streng... Relation Of Mind And Body
We have found that mind is entirely dependent upon the bodily organs for its existence. Is the body in the same way dependent upon the mind? Can the mind die and the body go on? Given a perfect body with unblocked sense channels, and put the min... Self-correction
Accuracy in work, a primary essential to the nurse, can become automatic if she will demand of herself accuracy of perception, and concentrate on learning and doing until details almost take care of themselves; if she will correct her own work by th... Self-training In Memory
Hand in hand with clear thinking goes reliable memory. But so many of us have it not, and feel its need so strongly that we shall consider for a moment some means of training it. William James holds that brain-paths cannot be deepened; that memory... The Attention Of Interest
Attention naturally follows interest. It can, however, be held by will to the unappealing, with the usual result of transforming it into a thing of interest. One of the laws of the mind we have already stressed is that what we attend to largely d... The Attention Of Reason And Will
So the good nurse will not consider her work done when she has diverted mental processes into channels of co-operation. When the patient, who is capable of reasoning, knows the why of his treatment, and realizes that he can only keep well as he hims... The Beginning Of Reason
We found feeling by far the strongest factor in producing action in babyhood and childhood. Our instinctive doing, we learned, is the result of a race impulse. Will acts chiefly at emotion's bidding. But very early the baby's experience operates as ... The Central And Peripheral Nervous Systems In Action
I am passing the open door of a bake-shop, and a pervading odor fills the air. I think "hot rolls," because my organ of smell--the nose--has received a stimulus which it transmits along my olfactory nerves to the brain; and there the odor is given a... The Cerebrum Or Forebrain
For convenience the various lobes of the cerebrum are known as frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital, according to the parts of the brain referred to: as forehead, temples, crown, or occiput. The cerebellum, or hind brain, is also divided into ... The Deluded Patient
If the patient's mind is temporarily clouded through infection or suffering, he may be reacting to a delusion, an obsession, a fixed idea of disability, a terrifying fear. Sometimes he persistently refuses food, and gives no reason for it. The unthi... The Mind A Prey To False Associations
Sometimes a nurse reminds a patient of some one in the past who has complicated her life in an unhappy way, so she distrusts or dreads her or is made constantly uncomfortable in her presence. In such a case, if the nurse reports her patient as resis... The Normal Mind
Mind, we found, is born in the form of consciousness when the outside world impresses itself upon the brain-cells by way of the senses. This consciousness, observation and experiment prove, is first a feeling one, later a feeling-thinking-willing ... The Normal Mind
The normal mind reasons clearly with the best data at hand to results that will stand the test of conformity to reality; the normal mind uses reason and feeling, guided by reasonable attitude; in the normal mind reason advises action and will brings...