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the inability to make the appropriate response to a social challenge,
requires an understanding of the brain's capacity to handle 'incoming'
messages and its accurate control and direction of the resultant
motor circuit impulses which subserve the functions of behaviour.
Mechanical brain damage can have startling effects on behaviour and
modes of thought, and we are becoming increasingly aware that
certain chemicals have similar effects. Such results indicate the
dependence which behaviour and thought have upon the structure
and function of the higher levels of the nervous system and it is here
that neuro-physiology may well reveal the basic biological processes
leading to social adjustment.
Notwithstanding that there is evidence to support the theory
that some people have a genetically inherited low anxiety-neurosis
threshold, it is known that anxiety is basic to all human behaviour
and that it is the natural driving force which persuades the body to
take constructive and useful action. Often anxiety causes internal
tension which may present as actual physical illness but if it results
in ineffective behaviour and a defective personality, it is then considered
to be mental illness. Yet it must be recognised that there
never has been, or ever will be, a time when social and emotional
environments could be regarded as ideal. Indeed, even if it were
possible, it would be little short of disaster if all anxieties were to be
removed from life for it is a fact that all bodily structures mature
and improve their performances when provided with constant challenge.
This is the process which develops personality.
Recently it has been postulated that neurotic behaviour is
learned. If this is substantiated then everybody, but parents in particular,
must be made to realise the impact of their own behaviour
patterns on a child's development for, as with physical education,
personality development begins early in life. Discrimination and
judgement are shaped by challenges graduated according to age,
ability and aptitude and to entice children into the habit of thought
and response to social situations is to introduce them to human
relations' training and enables the foundations of a stable personality
to be laid. Essentially, this is fitting the individual to the environment
and it is society's responsibility to see that this environment
is physically suitable and emotionally acceptable. Adulthood
or maturity is exemplified by an individual's ability to balance his
instinctive urges against demands of society and re-directing them
into socially constructive channels.
Although during the past few years new methods of care and
treatment have evolved, officially the needs of the mentally ill can
be met only by three agencies, viz. the hospital, the general practitioner
and the local authority, and conflict of intent between any
or all of these exposes the patient to great risk. With regard to these