The great secret of managing the mind of a man is to find employment for it. Strength of mind is improvable; hence strength of mind differs more than strength of body. The aggregate of mind is one things and a distinguished mind another. That has meant the falling away not only of deliberately broken taboos, but of a greater number that have disappeared almost unconsciously and automatically. The girl who without thought stopped in the middle of the pavement to adjust her stocking was the typical pioneering figure. She was introducing a new kind of simple directness into life, a new sort of modesty, a new courage. Naturally, it is in the sphere of sensual emotions and habits that these attributes become most conspicuous, for men and even more for women, whose sphere is by constitution so largely that of sensuality, whether for good or evil. The new freedom and directness is obviously shown in public speech and the World of journalism. In private speech, of course, things have always been spoken of—often ignorantly and unwholesomely, and seldom between people of opposite gender even when married to each other—which were regarded as indecorous to speak of in public, even when they were of most vital concern. 

 Mental health is such a subject. Before we proceed, a caution is in order. Psychology is to assist communication of human problems. However, if used carelessly, psychological terms may do hard. Psychology concerns everyone, because, however austerely the individual may live, he or she is always liable to come into contact with a mentally ill person or a venereally infected person or even to enter into a lifelong relationship with such a person and so to risk the prospects of health and happiness. Yet all of us who are past youth once lived in a time when the taboo on discussion was so strict that only in professional or highly specialized quarters was it possible to discuss frankly the issues of mental health and venereal disease, and such a word as “psychopath” or “syphilis”—which are simple and correct names for the most potently dangerous health problems—was for public purpose prohibited. Even today, so strong has been the hold of the old taboo, we find a tendency to disguise these subjects under the vague and fumbling names of “mental hygiene” and “social hygiene,” although those terms, so far as it has any meaning at all, as no special connection with the subjects in question. 

 The necessity for plain speaking about mental and social hygiene, now universally admitted, was first felt as a gradual extension of that great organized movement for “Public Health” which we owe to the enthusiasm for materialistic progress of the so-called “Victorian” epoch. It was inevitable that an important aspect of public health should soon be felt to lie in the spread of information to young people concerning the exact nature of the danger of the mentally ill and venereal diseases. Thus was reached the idea of a sort of “sexual education” and “mental education.” However, it was obvious that an education in the sex and the mind which merely meant the imparting of information necessary as a warning against disease was absurdly inadequate and might even sometimes prove mischievous. There thus came into view, not indeed for the first time, but in a more urgent and generally acceptable fashion, the whole question of educations in matters of mental health and the sex. 

This is now being more or less systematically carried out in all countries. In Russia, it may be found here and there developed with relentless thoroughness and with the assistance of the cinema to illustrate the various actual phases in the sex life and mental health. In Germany also, which has long been a centre of sexological and physiological science, the cinema is largely employed. However, even in the most conservative and the most puritanical countries (though conservative and puritanic are by no means necessarily identical) the need of education in matter of the mind and the sex is generally accepted, and, here and there, more or less cautiously carried out, though all its implication are yet far from being generally accepted. Yet this innovation alone represents an enormous change in the incidence of taboos. Of all the taboos in civilization up to recent years none has been stronger than that against speech on matters of the sex and the mental health. It is all the more powerful because they are taboos which have been inherited by civilization from savagery, and in the transfer grown even stronger.  

 Even in the early books of the Bible, when we read of “feet” they are not always part of the body which we are thereby to understand, and thousands of years later, when I was a child in London, I was told that America was the land where it was indelicate to speak of “legs”; the word “limbs” was used instead. There is no doubt about the progress made during the past century. However, we must not be surprised that even those who no longer believe in the taboo often still observe it in practice. The taboo had always involved private revolts, with outbursts of what even those who thus revolted felt to be filthy and disgusting language, so that they were all the more anxious to keep them secret from the young. It was the most difficult thing in the World to speak to children, their own children, of what they themselves still instinctively felt to be filthy and disgusting. It could only be done rightly and naturally when the parents had undergone more than mere intellectual conviction, something which religious people used to call “a change of heart”; and that change itself, to be really operative, should take place early in life. So that still today, the child is too easily allowed to follow the old paths, and vicious circle remains established.  

 CRESLEIGH HAVENWOOD

Lincoln, CA | from the low $700s

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No appointment needed! Cresleigh Havenwood features four distinct floor plans ranging from 2,293 – 3,377 square feet and offering up to five bedrooms.  Each plan has been thoughtfully designed and includes great features such as single story homes, guest suites, optional offices, garage workshops, and more!

Get the most out of your new home with Cresleigh’s All Ready smart home featuring all the connectivity needed to keep your house running. Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes with owned solar included! 

Located off of Virginiatown Road and McCourtney Road, residents of the 83 homesites of Cresleigh Havenwood will benefit from a brand new neighborhood in the charming City of Lincoln. Palo Verde Park, is  just down the street and there’s plenty of recreation to take part in all around town. https://cresleigh.com/havenwood/