Teaching mental health and hygiene/2020

Teaching mental health and hygiene/2020

Teaching mental health and hygiene

Mr Adolph Meyer while helping Mr Clifford Bears in obtaining medical and psychiatric assistance to the patients in mental hospitals introduced the word mental hygiene for the first time in the world. Clifford, himself was unfortunate to be a mental patient and tried to commit sucide in 1900. he spent three years of his precious life in mental asylum when he was only 24 years old. he was fortunate enough to be out of the asylum and wrote an autobiography through which he called the attention of the intellectuals to the unfortunate people.

[creation is a sound mind in a sound body is the purpose of education. we know that the body and the mind are interconnected. social wellbeing of a man depends on the mental balance that he maintains in his day to day activities. in this chapter the learner is warned of the maladjustment which may affect his mental hygiene]

 mental health and hygiene

At present mental hygiene concentrates on prevention of mental diseases rather than their cure. when a person is described healthy he should not only be physically well but also mentally. in other words, the modern concept of health extends beyond the healthy functioning of body, it includes sound and efficient working of body and mind, this is the key point here. man is a psychosomatic organism.

Mental hygiene means the science that maintains health and well being as far as mental functions are concerned. mental hygiene discovers laws and means of maintaining the mind in a healthy condition. it insists not only the treatment of mental ill health but also in the provision for favourable conditions for mental being.

In other words from positive view point mental hygiene is the science of assuring the healthy mind whereas from negative point of view it is the science of curing mind from various diseases. a child's mental health depends upon very many factors; but the role of parents, teachers,guardians and peers can't be over emphasized. the very aim of education is to create individuals properly adjusted and possessing integral personality and therefore mental hygiene from negative and positive points of view is vital to educational practices. modern education aims at creation of a personality every individual in the society that makes for good adjustment with the environment through the attainment of a proper synthesis between the intellectual emotional and physical aspects so that one expriences minimum tension and conflict with others and within himself.

in the encyclopedia of modern education we can find a very comprehensive to human adjustment and achievement which is related to the prevention of emotional ma;adjustment and preparation of the individual for skilled working.'' a more or less similar definition can be seen in Dictionary of education too, which says, ''mental hygiene is the science which studies the principles and practices of preventing mental disorders and promoting mental health.''

it brings us to the conclusion that there are some basic requirements for mental health:

1. Full expression:

Every human being has urges, desires,motives and impulses. a wholesome personality is the result of the smooth and coordinated functioning of these and their full expression.

2.Harmonization:

Like in the case of the body here too different factors of mind should work in a coordinated manner once they start working their own without consideration to other factors, personality break down.

3. Direction of Innate and Acquired potentiality:

The abilities of the individual whether it be inborn or acquired should be directed towards the achievement of a common end. this direction towards common goal is inevitable for harmonization.

According to Crow and Crow '' mental hygiene is a science that deals with human welfare and pervades all fields of human relationship.'' he considers three major purposes to be performed by mental hygiene.

1. The prevention of mental disorder through an understanding of the relationship that exist between wholesome personality development and life experience.

2. the preservation of mental health of the individual and group.

3. the discovery and utilization of therapeutic measures to cure mental illness.

Conclusion;

To conclude, it can be said that mental hygiene studies laws and means to cure and prevent mental disorders and maladjustments as well as it introduces positive measures to produce balanced, adjusted and healthy personality.

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