Mental Hygiene and Social Work
- Type:
Book Reviews & Abstracts
- Author:
Porter R. Lee and Marion E. Kenworthy,
M.D. New York. The Commonwealth Fund Division of Publications, 1929. $1.50. In Mental Hygiene and Social Work, Mr.
Porter Lee and Dr Kenworthy have issued a report on a vitally important experiment in the fields of psychology and sociology. The Commonwealth Fund of New York has set up as one of its aims the prevention of delin- quency, and as part of its programme the Bureau of Children’s Guidance was established in 1921 within the New York School of Social Work. The Bureau served the triple purpose of providing a clinic for the treatment of ner- vous or difficult children, a research unit for investigation into problems of normal and ab- normal psychology, and a field for the practical training of social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists. The Bureau was maintained in its virginal form for five and one half years, and during that time five hundred and ninety one children were treated. The staff therefore gained a body of experience of the highest value both for child guidance and for the train- ing of social workers, and this experience is set out in Mental Hygiene and Social Work with admirable clarity and open-mindedness.
The book, however, is much more than an ordinary report of an experiment. In two chapters, Parent and Child, and Child and Parent, the psychological theory on which mental hygiene work must be based is put before us, largely through the description of illustrative cases. By now we have all heard so many pathetic little stories of pathetic little children in the large literature of propaganda and appeal, that we may have become slightly impatient with this mehod of presentation. There are no grounds for impatience here. Or there are grounds for impatience of another kind?impatience to go and act on a newly dis- covered truth. Those of us who have known psychology as a rather dull and academic “subject,” sociology as concerned mainly with the strange doings of savages in remote parts of the world, or statisics on birth rates and divorce rates and rates of all kinds, philosophy as incomprehensible jargon about topics of in- finitesimal importance, may find in this book an illumination of human motives, a theory of social values, a plan for human education which will fire those of us whose work forces us to interfere in the lives of others with a desire to revise our evaluations of people and institutions, and build anew 011 better founda- tions.
We are shown in these chapters how close is the organic unity of family life, so that an emotional disturbance in one member spreads like a wave, or like a fire, or like a fog, accord- ing to its nature, to the other members. Trees are bent by the prevailing winds, and we can- not understand their shape without knowing about the winds. The prevailing psychological wind which shapes a child’s behaviour may be the anxiety of a widowed mother, the discord between quarrelling parents, the jealousy of an older brother. We cannot hope to help the child without doing something to allay or de- flect the wind.
But we are not only helped in this book to deal with established evils, we are given practical advice for preventing their occur- rence. The path which the child follows in his journey to maturity can, given goodwill and intelligence in those around him, be so planned for him that many of his difficulties will appear only as easily climbed steps, each leading to a new satisfaction in achievement. The second half of the report deals with the subject of training for social work in the field of mental health. Here again the interest of the exposition lies not so much in the content of the training scheme outlined, though that in itself is excellent, as in the revelation of a pedagogical method based on a new insight into the difficulties of adults learning at the same time an involved science and a difficult art.
An appendix gives the formal outlines used in the examination of patients at the Bureau of Children’s Guidance. Social workers may at first feel somewhat amazed at the amount of personal and family history considered necess- ary for an adequate social examination. It must be understood, however, that this is material which will emerge gradually during what usually becomes a long and friendly re- lationship with the family, and not evidence to be wrung from unwilling witnesses in a single painful interview.
Some statistical analyses of the Bureau’s case records are also offered, unfortunately with- out comment. The figures in themselves are highly interesting and one is anxious to hear the opinion of the workers themselves of these results. For instance, the fact that more than twice as many boys as girls were referred to the Bureau for treatment is noteworthy. The comparative representation of the various racial groups is also striking. Thirty-nine per cent, of the children were of Jewish origin. It is impossible, however, to judge how much, if anything, this fact means, without knowing the numerical proportion of Jews in the pop- ulation of New York City as a whole, and other possible factors which may control the size of this group.
The Bureau frankly admits its failures, which it estimates at one fifth of the total case load. Some people may think this a large pro- Portion. But when one considers the com- plexity of the task in child guidance, the new- ness of the work, and the fact that many of these failures occurred in the early days, when the Bureau was at its newest and most ex- perimental, one may wonder rather at the high Percentage of partial and complete successes. I have not seen the book on sale in England. Readers may therefore be glad to know where *t can be obtained. It can be got direct from the Commonwealth Fund Division of Publica- tions, Fuller Buildings, 57th Street and Mad- !j?011 Avenue, New York City, at a price of ?H .50.
E.L. Cattell Group Intelligence Scale. Pre- pared by R. B. Cattell, B.Sc., Ph.D. Pub- lished by George G. Harrap & Co. Specimen Set and Booklet, 3/6.
the booklet supplied with these tests the author states that his aim has been “to produce Vtf* *nteHigence scales capable of testing the A o e range of intelligence development from at of the normal child of eight to that of the oderately gifted adult and constructed on in!! r-m Principles.” Three scales of increas- ing difficulty have been prepared: Scale 1 ended for normal children aged 8 to 11, ^ for children of mental ages 11 to 15, ;Va j ^ ^or mental ages of 15 years and up- th ‘ *s’ ^or adults of average and more an average ability. The author thinks that by using three separate scales, each designed for an age span of only a few years, a more accurate measurement of ability can be ob- tained than by using scales of less limited com- pass. Alternative scales, exactly parallel in construction, are also provided for use in re- testing.
In constructing the tests, the author claims to have been guided by certain principles: ? (a) To include only those types of tests al- ready proved to be most highly saturated with ” g ” (Spearman’s ” general ability “). (b) To expect only a bare minimum of gen- eral knowledge on the part of the subject as a working basis for the mental operations dealt with by the tests.
(c) To assume a much more limited vocabu- lary than has hitherto been demanded in most intelligence tests. (d) To arrange the successive items in each test in increasing order of difficulty. (e) To facilitate the use of the scales for large numbers by rendering the scoring as simple and rapid as possible.
The total amount of time taken in the actual working of the tests amounts to 58 minutes in the case of Scale 1, and 70 minutes in the case of the other two Scales. The individual tests are timed and two rest pauses of five minutes and one of ten minutes are introduced in Scale 1. At the time the rest pauses occur, the succeeding test is exposed on the opposite page of the book. This seems an unfortunate arangement, since the pupils are to be en- couraged to talk during these intervals and, if possible, to play out of doors. The usual plan of having the printing upside down on the opposite page would have been a simple way of avoiding any possibility of discussion of the succeeding test.
The majority of the tests are of a type now familiar to those who have followed the dev- elopment of group tests in recent years. The scales include several forms of information or relations tests, such as Essentials, Parallels, Opposites, Classifications, and Sentence Com- pletions; and the usual forms of reasoning tests such as Absurdities, Analogies, Inferences, Best Reason, Riddles and Picture Completion Tests. The last named follow the principle of the Healy Completion Test, but instead of blocks to be selected and fitted into the spaces, we have a row of picture insets. The two correct insets have to be chosen and joined up by an arrow line with the two appropriate blank squares in the picture, a somewhat diffi- cult method of solution for children of 8 to 11. Certain details in two or three of the tests are open to criticism. In Scale 1, for example, the sample sentences to be completed show only one omitted word, the position being in- dicated by a mark of interrogation. Several of the test sentences, however, contain a sec- ond omission not to be filled and indicated by dots. To younger children this is bound to be confusing, especially in such an example as : Wheels are the …. of Motor Cars.
(Trains Aeroplanes Animals Fish In Test 8 of the same scale it is evidently assumed that ” lane ” can have only one grandfather, since the other might be no rela- tion at all to the cousin indicated ! Several of the pictures in Test 2 of the same scale are badly drawn. A blank in one of the pictures cuts off half of a house, but none of the insets supplies the other half, and all the insets are devoid of the rain which is falling heavily on the whole scene.
It should be noted that in Scale 1 nine out of the eleven tests are linguistic in nature. It is doubtful if tests demanding such a degree of facility in reading and of ability to inter- pret linguistic terms, should be used to this extent for children below the mental age of 10 years. Are psychologists agreed that in the majority of young children ” g ” shows itself to the best advantage through problems presented in linguistic form ? It is suggested in the instructions that for children ” aged 7 and 8 ” the tests should be read out from beginning to end by the exam- iner. This means that the children must do the tests, if at all, at the rate they are read out; it at once alters the conditions of testing. The slow children, if left to themselves, might be able to puzzle out at least some of the solu- tions, but urged on by the reading of the ex- aminer, might accomplish nothing at all.
The booklet supplied does not indicate in any way how the tests were standardised, though perhaps Dr Cattell has published this separately. It is hinted that Scale 1 is “some- what tentative, including tests that have not been widely tried out.” Surely the accurate standardisation of a scale is what brings it, if at all, into the realm of real usefulness. It is therefore unfortunate that these scales have been put on the market before that stage has been reached.
No norms are given in the booklet but it is stated that these may be obtained separately.
E.L.S.R. Sterilization for Human Betterment. By E. S. Gosney and Paul Popenhoe. The Mac- millan Co., New York. 1929. 8/6.
In the institutions of the State of California, 6,255 sterilizations, for one reason or another, had been performed prior to the year 1929. This is three times as many official steriliza- tions as had been perfonned in all the rest of the United States. It was a praiseworthy task to trace the records and results of these steril- izations as far as possible. This has been done under the general supervision of Dr Paul Pop- enhoe, but presumably Mr. Gosney took his share of the responsibility.
In the first part of their book, the authors give a summary of their findings and in the second part some conclusions to which these findings, and a general consideration of steril- izations elsewhere, have led them. It should be noted that of the 6,255 sterilizations under consideration, only 1,488 in all are described as having been done on account of feeble- mindedness : even so, the results of a really scientific enquiry into this relatively small number would have been interesting and of some value. Unfortunately, the impression that the book leaves is that the research was not very thorough, and that it certainly was not unbiased. Both in the way certain facts are stated, and even more conspicuously in the arguments about the facts and the conclusions drawn from them, the desire to prove a thesis is more evident than a desire to discuss the truth. Over and over again in cases where sterilization had been effected, good results are attributed to such sterilizations almost entirely, whereas it appears at least equally possible that they were the consequence of institutional care, training, or supervision. The authors may claim to have shown, what has never been seriously in dispute, that the operation is in the great majority of cases effective for its purpose in the individual, and that it can be performed without serious risk to life or health. There is no proof that it has any deleterious effects upon character or conduct; and although a mild claim that it has a beneficial effect seems to be suggested, there is certainly no proof of this either.
A not uncommon objection to sterilization has been that the patient would be more likely than before to indulge in promiscuous sexual intercourse and thereby to perpetuate certain evils; the small number of cases investigated ln this regard do not appear to substantiate this objection, but truth in this matter must be very difficult to come by. Nevertheless, in spite ?f these serious deficiencies and limitations, the authors have evidently desired to state their conclusions with a certain degree of modera- tion in contrast to the wild and exaggerated statements only too often made on this subject.
One of their first statements is this; ” By sterilizing all mentally defective persons, the Production of mentally defective persons would not be stopped, for many would still be pro- duced from apparently sound parents; but at least the number of mentally defective Persons in the community could be re- duced by perhaps as much as half in hree or four generations.” This seems to . e a pure guess, for no criteria are produced to Justify it( aild it would probably be regarded s optimistic by those most qualified to express ,n ^Piuion in this country. Moreover, the s erilization of all mentally defective persons as Postulated, is impossible as a practical r?Position. As an effective eugenic measure, f c’rilization, as the authors implicitly acknow- ledge, would require to be performed on ^Proximately one-tenth of the whole popula- on : ” the number of persons in the United e’Hi W^? are definitely inferior mentally, tier because of disease or because of defic- ^’ncy, must be nearly 10,000,000.” At the su?St> results ?f the Californian enquiry tio the desirability of further investiga- va]11 as to whether sterilizaion might be of real safe*2 aS a measure which would result in the ^ return to the community from institutions th a somewhat larger number of defectives ^ould otherwise be possible.
H. B. Brackenbury. Lip-Reading. By Irene R. Ewing. Man- chester University Press. 3/6 net.
This small book of less than 100 pages con- tains a vast amount of information on the diffi- cult Art of Lip-reading, or, as the author more accurately calls it, Speech-reading.
Mrs. Ewing writes not only with the author- ity of an experienced teacher of the deaf but with the deep sympathy of one who has her- self passed through the various stages of ever- increasing deafness and who thus understands the feeling of isolation and despair which deaf- ness brings and of the return of hope, renewed interest in life which results from the ability to speech-read. Moderation is the key-note of this little volume; the author makes no extrav- agant claims and does not underestimate the patience and determination required by both teacher and pupil.
Part II contains carefully constructed schemes to enable friends of the deaf to co- operate with the teacher, by giving suitable practice material; there are also two courses of 10 lessons each, which include all the phon- etic theory necessary to enable the student to analyse speech movements, but I must confess that I cannot quite agree with the description of the articulation of I and r.
The author shows, in Part III, her deep knowledge of the mental processes behind acquisition of speech by the normal child, and she seeks to develop the watching attitude necessary for speech-reading, by observing the reactions of each child to different situations and noting his individual interests.
In short, a most excellent handbook on the art of speech-reading which should certainly be read by all deaf adults and the parents of deaf children, as well as by teachers of lip-reading and by those responsible for the education of the deaf. E.C.MacL. The Education of Handicapped Children. By J. E. Wallace Wallin. London Edition. George Harrap. 8/6 net.
This is an English edition of a book which was published a few years ago in America. The book contains a comprehensive and con- cise history of the education of retarded and mentally defective children, together with the psychological theories attendant on feeble- mindedness and backwardness.
Practical and helpful suggestions as to the nature of the equipment and natural endow- ment which teachers of these handicapped children should possess are detailed in the sec- ond part of the volume. There is, in addition, an exhaustive plan for their education.
The third part of the book concerns the social consequences of the neglect of the prob- lem of the feeble-minded. It describes the constructive work that has been done or at- tempted both to prevent the incidence of feeble-mindedness and to provide adequate care and training of the mentally defectives already in existence. A useful appendix des- cribes the physical and mental characteristics of various types of mentally deficient children.
On re-reading the book one is impressed once again with the fact that the most helpful form of constructive work with the feeble- minded lies in the proper education and skil- ful care of the physical health of the children so afflicted. The last word as to the nature of that education which may be described as suitable for such cases, has not yet been said, but the author’s suggestions on the matter have been applied with successful results, and are worth the utmost consideration of those concerned in the mental welfare of the race. H.C.D.
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