mental hygiene, the science of promoting mental health and preventing mental illness through the application of psychiatry and psychology. A more commonly used term today is mental health. In 1908, the modern mental hygiene movement took root as a result of public reaction to Clifford Beers Beers, Clifford Whittingham, 1876–1943, American founder of the mental hygiene movement, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1897.
..... Click the link for more information. 's autobiography, A Mind That Found Itself, which described his experiences in institutions for the insane. Beers adopted the name "mental hygiene" (suggested by Adolf Meyer Meyer, Adolf , 1866–1950, American neurologist and psychiatrist, b. Switzerland, M.D. Zürich, 1892. He emigrated to the United States in 1892 and was professor of psychiatry at Cornell Univ.
..... Click the link for more information. ) to describe his ideas, and founded the Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene (1908) and the National Committee for Mental Hygiene (1909), the group which organized the National Association for Mental Health in 1950. Each of these groups sought to improve the quality of care for the mentally ill, to prevent mental illness where possible, and to ensure that accurate information regarding mental health was widely available. The National Institute of Mental Health has been responsible, since 1949, for the major portion of U.S. research in mental illness. The mental hygiene movement has accomplished, among other advances, wide reforms in institutional care, the establishment of child-guidance clinics, and public education concerning mental hygiene. See also psychiatry psychiatry , branch of medicine that concerns the diagnosis and treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders, including major depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety.
..... Click the link for more information. ; psychotherapy psychotherapy, treatment of mental and emotional disorders using psychological methods. Psychotherapy, thus, does not include physiological interventions, such as drug therapy or electroconvulsive therapy, although it may be used in combination with such methods.
..... Click the link for more information. ; psychosis psychosis , in psychiatry, a broad category of mental disorder encompassing the most serious emotional disturbances, often rendering the individual incapable of staying in contact with reality.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See G. N. Grob, Mental Illness and American Society, 1875–1940 (1983); P. Brown, ed., Mental Health Care and Social Policy (1985); T. Richardson, The Century of the Child (1989); E. F. Torrey, Nowhere to Go (1992).

mental hygiene

Science of maintaining mental health and preventing disorders to help people function at their full mental potential. It includes all measures taken to promote and preserve mental health: rehabilitation of the mentally disturbed, prevention of mental illness, and aid in coping in a stressful world. Community mental health acknowledges the relation between mental health, population pressures, and social unrest. It also deals with social problems, from drug addiction to suicide prevention. Treatment of the mentally ill through the ages has ranged from neglect, ill treatment, and isolation to active treatment and integration into the community, often in response to crusading reformers. Prevention of mental illness includes prenatal care, child-abuse awareness programs, and counseling for crime victims. Treatment includes psychotherapy, drug therapy, and support groups. One of the most important efforts is public education to combat the stigma still attached to mental illness and encourage those affected to seek treatment.

mental hygiene [′men·təl ′hī‚jēn]

(psychology)

That branch of hygiene dealing with the preservation of mental and emotional health.

Mental Hygiene

a branch of hygiene that studies measures and means for creating, protecting, and strengthening mental health and preventing mental diseases. The theoretical foundation of mental hygiene includes social and general psychology, psychotherapy, social psychiatry, and the physiology of higher nervous activity.

Galen wrote the first specialized work on mental hygiene— Hygiene of Passions, or Moral Hygiene. The idea that mental health depends on social life was proposed by P. J. G. Cabanis. I. P. Merzheevskii, the founder of mental hygiene in Russia, regarded the high aspirations and the interests of the individual as the most important means of protecting mental health and increasing productive activity.

In the USSR, mental hygiene emphasizes social measures such as improvement of working and living conditions; the systematic inculcation of active, socially valuable attitudes in adolescents; and vocational guidance to promote the practical application of these attitudes. In addition, mental hygiene in the USSR emphasizes an educational approach and the teaching of specific methods of controlling one’s mental condition and sense of self. Observation of patients with nervous and mental disorders in dispensaries is an important method in mental hygiene.

The most pressing tasks of mental hygiene include the prevention of mental traumas in children and the development of methods of increasing the effectiveness of teaching in secondary and higher schools, in order to prevent excessive nervous and psychological stress.

The consequences of the scientific and technological revolution are increasing the importance of controlling the psychological climate in small and large groups and of finding ways to increase the mental stability of workers performing increasingly complex jobs. The branches of mental hygiene include industrial mental hygiene (the mental hygiene of work), as well as the mental hygiene of mental labor, sexuality and family relations, children and adolescents, and the elderly.

REFERENCES

Kerbikov, O. V. Izbr. trudy. Moscow, 1971. Pages 300–11.
Opsikhogigienicheskoi rabote v shkole: Metodicheskoe pis’mo. Moscow, 1961.
Carroll, H. A. Mental Hygiene, 3rd ed. New York, 1956.
Stevenson, G. S. Mental Health Planning for Social Action. New York-Toronto-London, 1956.
English, O. S., and G. H. J. Pearson. Emotional Problems of Living: A voiding the Neurotic Pattern, 3rd ed. New York, 1963.

V. E. ROZHNOV

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No references found			Angus, who had hitherto maintained hilarious ease from motives of mental hygiene, revealed the strain of his soul by striding abruptly out of the inner room and confronting the new-comer. The Innocence Of Father Brown by Chesterton, Gilbert K. View in context			Menshutkin, Boris Nikolaevich Menshutkin, Nikolai Menshutkin, Nikolai Aleksandrovich mensole menstrual age Menstrual Cycle menstrual period menstruate menstruation menstruum Mensu Mensura Mensural Notation mensuration mental mental aberration mental adjustment mental age Mental Agitation mental deficiency Mental Diseases mental disorder mental disorders mental handicap mental health Mental Hygiene mental illness mental illness, legal Mental Marasmus mental retardation mental telepathy mental tests mentality Mentana Mentat mentation Mentawai Menteith Mentha Menthaceae menthane menthene Menthol menthone menthyl Menton menton-philtrum menton-supramentale Mentor Mentor Method Mentschikoff, Soia			Mental Health Treatment Group Mental Health Triage Scale Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland Mental Health Trust Authority Mental Health Uganda Mental Health Unit Mental Health Users' Forum Mental Health Voter Empowerment Project Mental health ward Mental health ward Mental health ward Mental Health Worker Mental Health Workers Alliance Mental Health Workers Without Borders Mental Health Workforce Development Mental Health Working Group Mental Health Working Party Mental Health, Addiction and Retardation Organizations of America Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases Mental Health, Law, and Policy Institute Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Mental Health: Evidence and Research Team mental home mental hospital mental hospital mental hospital mental hospital Mental hospitals Mental hospitals Mental hospitals Mental Hygiene Mental Hygiene Arrest Mental Hygiene Consultation Service Mental Hygiene Law Mental Hygiene Legal Service Mental Hygiene Therapist Assistant mental illness mental illness mental illness mental illness Mental Illness and Drug Dependency mental illness as defense Mental Illness Awareness Week Mental Illness Carer Advisory Link Mental Illness Education Mental Illness Education Australia Mental Illness Education Project, Inc. Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia Mental Illness Fellowship of North Queensland Inc. Mental Illness Fellowship of South Australia Mental Illness Needs Discussion Sessions Mental Illness Needs Index Mental Illness Recovery Center, Inc. Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center Mental Illness Specific Grant Mental Illness Work Group Mental Illness, Drug Addiction, and Alcoholism