Mental Hygiene

Because Humanitarian Clifford Whittingham Beers was once crazy, the American Foundation for Mental Hygiene was created last week.

For three years he was kept in sanatoria and insane asylums, a maniac. That was the beginning of this century. Treatment then in use was to beat and cow the inmates cruelly. Maniac Beers kept tab of the cruelties and through interest in the subject regained mental balance. He was freed. Then he wrote his famed book, A Mind that Found Itself. For 20 years it has been a gospel to social workers.

The same year (1908) he founded the mental hygiene movement. The first society was in Connecticut. Now half the United States have similar ones. Coordinating their activities is the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. Humanitarian Beers is its secretary. Its aim has been to "enable men, women and children to live happier, healthier and more efficient lives through better understanding and management of the processes of their minds and of the controlling forces in human behavior."

Last week the national committee met in Manhattan with several hundred physicians, psychologists, educators and social workers from all parts of the country. They complained of the insecurity of their finances. Money for their work has come haphazardly. Hence to get a regular income they organized the American Foundation for Mental Hygiene. They want a million dollar endowment. Already they have $150,000 pledged, a condition that made Humanitarian Beers, now 52, glow with happy zeal.