Mental Hygiene

Background and Objectives: Self-confidence, referring to relying on and exploiting individual abilities and talents for realizing spiritual and material prosperity, not only contradicts but is in agreement with and a prerequisite for faith in God. Practically, the greater faith in God one has, the more potent self-confidence he /she possess. Investigating the subject of self-confidence from the perspectives of Quran, Ahadith and psychology, this study explores the meaning of self (soul) in self-confidence and its levels, the prerequisites for development and enhancement of self-confidence, the association of self-concept and self-esteem with self-confidence, and the approaches to develop and enhance positive self-concept as well as to boost self-confidence.
Methods: The data of this descriptive review article were gathered from library and digital references.
Results: Although it appears that self-confidence contradicts Islamic teachings, it can be clearly understood that this teaching subject is confirmed and emphasized in Islamic teachings by discovery of its true meaning.
Conclusion: If having self-confidence is meant to rely on and exploiting individual abilities and talents to reach material and spiritual prosperity, it not only does not contradict but is in agreement with and a prerequisite for faith in God. Self in self- confidence indeed means human as a combination of the body and the spirit which is fully consistent with indices of self-confidence. According to psychologists, improving self-esteem and positive self-concept affects self-confidence directly. From perspective of religion, paying attention to venerability and God-given dignity of human, recognizing the superb purpose in life, etc. are approaches to develop and enhance positive self-concept and self-esteem, and to boost self-confidence.
Keywords: Mental Health, Mental Hygiene, Psychology and Religion, Self- confidence, Self-esteem.

Eric Wittkower founded McGill University’s transcultural psychiatry unit in 1955. One year later, he started the first international newsletter in this academic field, which became (and remains) the main journal today: Transcultural Psychiatry. However, at the beginning of his career Wittkower gave no signs that he would be interested in social sciences and psychiatry; he originally trained as a specialist in internal medicine in Berlin. This paper describes the historical context of the post-war period, when Wittkower founded a research unit at McGill University with an American anthropologist, Jacob Fried. Using archival material from McGill, I focus on the history of scientific networks and the circulation of knowledge, particularly on the exchanges between the French- and English-speaking academic cultures in North America and Europe. Because the history of transcultural psychiatry is a transnational history par excellence, but also a literature of exile, this leads necessarily to the important question of the reception of this academic field abroad.

Résumé

L’hygiène mentale est un dispositif qui sert à gérer les populations. Pour y parvenir, on doit mener des enquêtes sur tous les sujets, particulièrement chez les jeunes élèves. C’est là le point d’origine de la discipline qui sépare, traite et, dans la mesure du possible, répare le sujet « défectueux ». Parallèlement, il faut convaincre la nation du bien-fondé de cette discipline et de son oeuvre sociale, scientifique et morale. En 1931 et 1932, on assiste à la première campagne médiatique d’hygiène mentale sur les ondes de CKAC. Ce corpus donne un aperçu de la détermination des hygiénistes mentaux dans leurs menées sociales et sanitaires pour que la société progresse à l’abri du mal et de la dangerosité qui s’incarne dans la folie. Ce détour par le passé ouvre la porte à l’analyse du temps présent.

Abstract

Mental hygiene is a system to manage populations. To do this effectively, studies must be conducted on every category of individual, especially schoolchildren. Such studies are the basis of this discipline that separates, treats and, as much as possible, repairs “defective” subjects. At the same time, the nation must be led to believe in the validity of the discipline, and to acknowledge its social, scientific and moral worth. In 1931 and 1932, the first Canadian mental hygiene media campaign was aired on CKAC. These recordings and documents from the campaign testify to the determination with which mental hygiene specialists conducted their social and health activities, in order that society may progress unthreatened by the evil and danger inherent in madness. This journey back in time opens the door to an analysis of the present.

This paper examines the literature published by the Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene (CNCMH), a precursor to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), from 1918-1921, and its connection to eugenicist social policies. Specifically, this study involves a critical discourse analysis of the Canadian Journal of Mental Hygiene (CJMH) published by the CNCMH, which illustrates how the roots of Canada's mental health field are linked to a nation-building project deeply intertwined with eugenicist notions of race and disability. Foundation myths that reinforce the Canadian nation were also imbued in the literature, including: Canadian identity as linked to white non-disability, Canada as tabula rasa, and eugenicist fears of the ‘over-population’ of ‘undesirables’. On the basis of these foundation myths, the CNCMH considered mental hygiene discourse and practice as a means to further Canada as a white nondisabled nation. The desire to further the Canadian nation in this manner led to the promotion of eugenicist social policies. Many of these policies - especially, immigration controls - were put into place by the Canadian government and remain to this day.

Le mouvement d’hygiène mentale, qui a vu le jour au début du XXe siècle aux États-Unis, visait à offrir des alternatives à l’internement asilaire pour les malades mentaux et les personnes considérées comme « arriérées » ou « anormales », en particulier les enfants. Il entendait également contribuer au développement de la prévention en matière de santé mentale et, ainsi, à la déstigmatisation de la maladie mentale. Rapidement parvenu au Québec, il a commencé à s’y institutionnaliser, dès la fin de la Première Guerre mondiale, à l’aune d’une triple influence transfrontalière.