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5. What I am trying to say too succinctly is greatly elaborated in Williams, Raymond, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture And Society (London, 1976), pp. 9–25.Google Scholar

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10. For the beginnings and early years of the movement, see Dain, , Clifford W. Beers, Chaps. 9–13, and Sicherman, , The Quest for Mental Health in America, 1880–1917, Chaps. 5–6.Google Scholar

11. In 1913 the NCMH claimed that the mentally ill in asylums and hospitals numbered at least one quarter of a million, and their number was increasing annually at the rate of three or four per every thousand increase in the nation's population. In addition, mental illness represented an economic burden to the nation amounting to almost $100,000,000 per annum. Barker, Lewellys F., “Some Phases of the Mental Hygiene Movement And the Scope of the Work of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene,” in Beers, Clifford W., A Mind That Found Itself (New York, 1913), pp. 328–333.Google Scholar

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14. Three quasi-official summaries of mental hygiene doctrine are: Pratt, George K., Your Mind and You: Mental Health (New York, 1924); Burnham, William H., The Normal Mind (New York, 1924); and Groves, Ernest R. and Blanchard, Phyllis, Introduction to Mental Hygiene (New York, 1930).Google Scholar

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18. Quoted in Sicherman, , The Quest For Mental Health, p. 180.Google Scholar

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24. Cohen, , “The Mental Hygiene Movement, The Commonwealth Fund, and Public Education, 1921–1933.” Although the Program remained in effect the NCMH-CF enterprise envisioned by Salmon, it was decided ultimately that responsibility for the Program be distributed among three agencies. The visiting teacher demonstration was assigned to the Public Education Association of New York City. Responsibility for the training of clinical psychologists, psychiatric social workers and child psychiatrists was assigned the New York School of Social Work. The nation-wide organization and demonstration of child guidance clinics, the largest phase of the Program, went to the NCMH. The Program was directed by Barry C. Smith of the Commonwealth Fund.Google Scholar

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35. Wickmans, Edwin K., Children's Behavior and Teacher's Attitudes (New York, 1928), is a hygienist classic. See also Haggerty, M.E., “The Incidence of Undesirable Behavior in Public School Children,” Journal of Educational Research, 12 (1925): 102–122; and Groves, and Blanchard, , Introduction to Mental Hygiene, pp. 98–99, 187–193.Google Scholar

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37. No single document captures so well the dominant mood and ideological thrust of the mental hygiene movement in education as Bassetts', Clara The School and Mental Health (New York, 1931). This is a series of short articles written by a social worker on the staff of the NCMH, then published in booklet form by the Commonwealth Fund.Google Scholar

38. Salmon, Thomas W., “Program For the Prevention of Delinquency,” unpublished, in Thomas W. Salmon Papers, Archives of Psychiatry, New York Hospital. The term “attitude” is invoked frequently by hygienists when they discuss the sort of change they were after and obviously had a special meaning for them. Rokeach's definition of “attitude” would appear to be what they had in mind: “a relatively enduring organization of an individual's beliefs … that predisposes his actions.” Rokeach, Milton, Beliefs, Attitudes And Values: A Theory of Organization And Change (San Francisco, 19), Ch. 5, “The Nature of Attitudes.” Google Scholar

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49. The essays by Murphy, Hollinger, and Bender in Higham, and Conkin, (eds.), New Directions In American Intellectual History, are relevant here.Google Scholar

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53. For example, Gesell, Arnold, “Mental Hygiene and The School,” Mental Hygiene, 3 (1919): 59–64; Terman, Lewis M., The Hygiene of the School Child (Boston, 1914), Chapters 16–18; Wallace Wallin, J. E., The Mental Hygiene of the School Child (Boston, 1914); Averill, Lawrence A., The Hygiene of Instruction (Boston, 1928).Google Scholar

54. See for example, Taft, Jessie, “Mental Hygiene and Social Work,” in Williams, Frankwood E., ed., Social Aspects of Mental Hygiene (New Haven, 1925). See also Culbert, Jane, “The Public School as a Factor in the Training of the Socially Handicapped Child,” Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work (1923), p. 98; and Edith Campbell, M., “The Strategic Position of the School in Programs of Social Work,” Ibid., pp. 362ff; and Pratt, Anna Black, “The Relation of the Teacher And The Social Worker,” Annals, 98 (1921): 90–96. And in general for the convergence of mental hygiene and social work see Lubove, Roy, The Professional Altruist: The Emergence of Social Work As A Career (Cambridge, Mass., 1965).Google Scholar

55. This discussion is based on Miles, Mathew, “On Temporary Systems,” in Miles, Mathew (ed.), Innovation in Education (New York, 1964), pp. 446ff; Holzner, , Reality Construction in Society, pp. 152–155; and Rogers, , Communication of Innovations, pp. 279–83.Google Scholar

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57. White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, Report of the Committee on the Socially Handicapped—Delinquency, The Delinquent Child (New York, 1932), pp. 38–41, and 99–133. And White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, Report of the Committee On the School Child, The School Health Program (New York, 1932), pp. 61–82.Google Scholar

58. According to the president of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, the whole thrust of parent education was to give parents “the fundamentals of child psychology and mental hygiene.” Parent Education, 2(1931), vi. For evidence of how deeply mental hygiene had penetrated the parent education movement, see National Society for the Study of Education, 28th Yearbook, Preschool and Parental Education (Bloomington, Ind., 1929), and White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, Report of the Subcommittee on Parent Education, Parent Education: Types, Content, Method (New York, 1932), passim. See also Frank, Lawrence K., “Children and Youth” in Presidents' Research Committee on Social Trends, Recent Social Trends In America, (New York, 1933), 2 vols., vol. 2, pp. 793–94.Google Scholar

59. Symonds, Percival M., “Mental Hygiene In the Classroom: Historical Perspective,” Journal of Social Issues, 15 (1959): 1–6. Symonds chaired the section on “Mental Hygiene In Schools,” and was also able to elicit a testimonial for mental hygiene from William Heard Kilpatrick, his more famous colleague at Teachers College. See Kilpatrick, William Heard, “A Philosophy of Education,” The School Health Program, pp. 31–33; Kilpatrick, William Heard, “The New Point of View in Education,” Journal of The National Education Association, 20(1931): 131–135.Google Scholar

60. They amounted only to formation in 1924 of a joint NFA - National Conference of Social Work—NCMH Joint Committee to study ways of preventing juvenile delinquency through the school. School and Society, 19(1924): 454–55; Commonwealth Fund, Annual Report, 1924, pp. 37–38.Google Scholar

61. See, for example, Williams, Frankwood E., “The Field of Mental Hygiene,” Progressive Education, 3 (1926): 11–13; and Richards, Esther Loring, “Has Mental Hygiene a Place in the Elementary School,” Progressive Education, ibid.: 31–38. Dr. Liss was chairman of the PEA's Committee on Mental Hygiene in Education in the 1930s. For PEAs various committees and the Commissions see Graham, Patricia A., From Arcady to Academe: A History of The Progressive Education Association (N.Y., 1967), pp. 133–139, 168–171.Google Scholar

62. PEA president Burton Fowler (1931–1933) testifies: “It might astonish Clifford Beers to know that the Progressive Education Movement [sic] owes more to mental hygiene than to any other source, with the possible exception of the philosophy of John Dewey. Mr. Beers and his associates have taught us … to realize that all of our educational experiences are conditioned by the fundamental necessity of well-adjusted personality.” In Cross, Wilbur H., ed., Twenty-Five Years After: Sidelights on the Mental Hygiene Movement and its Founder (New York, 1934), pp. 146–147. In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the founding of the NCMH, in 1934 Progressive Education devoted an entire issue to “Mental Health In the School.” Google Scholar

63. Frank becomes a very important figure in the mental hygiene movement in the 1930s. For some idea of the range and extent of Frank's contacts, see Senn, Milton J.E., Insights On The Child Development Movement In The United States: Monographs of the Society For Research In Child Development, vol. 40, nos. 3 and 4, 1975, pp. 9–24, and passim. Google Scholar

64. In the early 20's, the NCMH launched a drive to gain a foothold for mental hygiene in the colleges and universities. By the late 20s it had achieved some striking successes. Cohen, , “The Mental Hygiene Movement and Changing Conceptions of the American College and University, 1920–1940.” Google Scholar

65. The general point is elaborated in Wayland, Sloan R., “Structural Features of American Education As Basic Factors In Innovation,” in Miles, , Innovation In Education, p. 598.Google Scholar

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67. Carson Ryan, W., “The Preparation of Teachers For Dealing With the Behavior Problems of Children,” Social And Society, 38 (August 18, 1928): 208–215.Google Scholar

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69. Historians have neglected the role of textbooks in the diffusion of educational ideology. The following are suggestive: American Textbook Publishers Institute, Textbooks In Education (New York, 1949); Cronbach, Lee J., ed., Textbook Materials In Modern Education (Urbana, Ill., 1955); and Wright Mills, C., “The Professional Ideology of Social Pathologists,” in Horowitz, , ed., Power, Politics and People. Google Scholar

70. Fenton, Norman, Mental Hygiene In School Practice (Stanford, Calif., 1943), p. 133.Google Scholar

71. Prescott, Daniel A., Emotion And The Educative Process (Wash., D.C., 1938), p. 137. This query seemed important enough to be repeated by Witty and Skinner, along with their affirmation of the priority of the mental hygiene approach. Mental Hygiene In Modern Education, p. 9.Google Scholar

72. National Education Association, Department of Elementary School Principals, Fifteenth Yearbook Personality Adjustment of the Elementary School Child (Wash. D.C., 1936); National Education Association, Department of Supervisors and Directors of Instruction, Mental Hygiene in the Classroom, Thirteenth Yearbook, Wash., D.C., 1940); Educational Policies Commission, Education For All American Google Scholar Youth (Wash., D.C., 1944). p. 330. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Fostering Mental Hygiene in Our Schools, 1950 Yearbook, (Wash., D.C., 1950) A document interesting for its sponsorship as well as its content is “Mental Hygiene In the Classroom, Report of the Joint Committee on Health Problems in Education of the National Education Association and the American Medical Association, with the cooperation of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene and the American Ortho-psychiatric Association (n.p. 1939).Google Scholar

73. E.g., The University of the State of New York, The Activity Program: A Curriculum Experiment (Albany, New York State, 1941), passim. See also Foster, Charles R., Mental Hygiene In New Jersey Schools (New Brunswick, N.J., 1939).Google Scholar

74. Wayne Wrightstone, J., Appraisal of Newer Elementary School Practices (New York, 1938); and Paul Leonard, J. and Eurich, Alvin C., eds., An Evaluation of Modern Education: A Report Sponsored By The Society For Curriculum Study (New York, 1942).Google Scholar

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77. There is a pertinent discussion of the life cycle of social movements in Toch, Hans, The Social Psychology of Social Movements (New York, 1965), p. 228.Google Scholar

78. Richards, Edward A., ed., Proceedings of the Mid-Century White House Conference on Children and Youth (Raleigh, N.C., 1950), p. 175, 176. See also Witmer, Helen Leland and Kotinsky, Ruth, eds., Personality in the Making: The Fact-Finding Report of the Mid-Century White House Conference on Children and Youth (New York, 1952), esp. Chs. 1, 4, and 11.Google Scholar

79. The Conference spurred another outpouring of textbooks on mental hygiene for teachers. E.g., Rogers, Dorothy, Mental Hygiene In Elementary Education (Boston, 1957); Lindgren, Henry C., Mental Health In Education (New York, 1954), N.B. Henry, ed., Mental Health in Modern Education, (Chicago, 1955); Kaplan, Louis, Education and Mental Health (New York, 1959); Redl, Fritz and Wattenberg, William W., Mental Hygiene in Teaching (New York, 1959); Bonney, Merl E., Mental Health In Education (Boston, 1960); and Bernard, Harold W., Mental Hygiene for Classroom Teachers (New York, 1952). There is also a whole genre of general textbooks for teachers which appeared in the fifties with titles like Introduction to Education or Methods of Education or Principles of Education all with their hygienist content. An interesting example is Lee, Gordon C., An Introduction to Education In Modern America (New York, 1953), Ch. 16, “Personality and Teaching.” Google Scholar

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85. Mental Hygiene, writes psychiatrist Dr. Smiley Blanton, in an analogy much favored by hygienists, is concerned with forestalling mental breakdowns in normal persons “just as we vaccinate healthy people to prevent smallpox.” “Mental Hygiene For College Students,” Huddleston, E. (ed.), Problems of College Education (N.Y. 1928), p. 303.Google Scholar

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95. Quoted in Robinson, Virginia P., Jessie Taft; Therapist And Social Worker (Philadelphia, Pa., 1962), p. 63. In a similar vein, another hygienist, a psychiatrist, declares that when all medical schools and every college and university offers courses in mental hygiene, when every home and school has learned to apply mental hygiene, when every community has facilities for mental hygiene, and when all agencies are administered in conformity with the laws of mental hygiene “then we shall have reached the millennium.” Stanley Abbott, E., “What Is Mental Hygiene?” American Journal of Psychiatry, 10(1924): 284.Google Scholar

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97. As early as 1919, Dr. E. E. Southard warned that the mental hygiene movement was being launched as “a matter of propaganda rather than largely a matter of research. “ Quoted in Gay, Frederick, The Open Mind: Elmer Ernest Southard, 1876–1920 (n.p., 1938), p. 150. And in 1930 on the occasion of the First International Congress on Mental Hygiene Dr. William H. Welch observed, “that big mental hygiene congress … was rather terrible, and an example of arousing the public before the foundation of sound knowledge and doctrine had been laid with good psychiatric and neurological institutes something might be done in mental hygiene, but it would have to be … so elementary as to lack altogether the spectacular appeal now made for the subject.” Quoted in Dain, , Clifford W. Beers, p. 248.Google Scholar

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99. This general point is discussed in Haskell, Thomas L., “Deterministic Implications of Intellectual History,” in Higham, and Conkin, (eds.), New Directions In American Intellectual History, pp. 140–141.Google Scholar

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