Went the Day Will?
Editorial
The aftermath of any party is a time for appraising its success, and it is inevitable that each English delegate to the International Congress on Mental Health?however little he or she may have been concerned in organizing it?should feel some degree of responsibility for its success; we were in the position of hosts. It is inevitable too that good hosts feel some dissatisfaction and regret after any party; they would be smug indeed if it were not so, and it is easy enough to indulge in preoccupations with the mundane matters of accommodation and fare. We must have expected then that we should feel some slight uneasiness on this score as our visitors departed.
This should by no means blind us to the very real success of the Congress, and we can congratulate the real hosts?the small band of Congress organizers?on their magnificent organization. Preparatory work, arrangements for accommodation, interpreting services, recreation and leisure facilities?all were carefully arranged parts of an excellent whole. That so much can be accomplished now merits the highest praise.
However indispensable a foundation, they were only a foundation; the structures built on top were the essentials. We are still too close to see clearly what their whole shape may be, but we can at least discern the style of the building. The credit for the understanding arrived at between so many individuals of different race, creed and background must be placed largely on the painstaking preparatory commissions. It was then possible to go straight to frank discussion of outstanding sociological problems without wasting time in clearing the ground of misunderstanding and ambiguity first; and the views of experts on their own subjects must have started many minds off on trains of thought to be later pursued on their own. Besides the set sessions, there was much value to be obtained from the informal meetings with old friends and new in the intervals; perhaps the only criticism was that there were too many sessions, too few intervals for this purpose.
Finally, there was the formation of the World Federation for Mental Health. There is thus the means for maintaining the goodwill and collaboration between workers in mental health throughout the world. This organization may have been born in a critical hour, but it could ask for no better godparents than its executive council, and if we all realize our personal responsibilities for its health, wisdom (and wealth), it may play its part in world history before too long?and before it is too late.
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