Mental Hygiene in the Community: By Clara Bassett. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1934. 394 p.

There exists no stranger hybrid than what is called mental hygiene. Born twenty-five years ago of the determination of Mr. Clifford W. Beers to introduce reforms in the care of the mentally sick in hospitals, it has become within a few years a national movement, and at the First International Congress in Washington in 1930 there were over three thousand delegates in attendance. It has already a program of activity which is to invade the life of the average citizen from birth to the grave, and in this volume the author defines its program and states its aims. In the introduction the reader is told what the science of mental hygiene is.

Mental hygiene is defined as "that growing body of knowledge and techniques which has for its purpose the understanding of the evolution of human personality; the promotion of mental health as an expression of the highest development and integration possible, at each age level, of the physical, emotional and mental powers of personality; the study, treatment and prevention of emotional and behavior disorders which preclude the happy and effective individual or social functioning of personality, as well as of the more radically incapacitating nervous and mental diseases and defects; the efficient organization and operation of community facilities which may be necessary for the achievement of these aims and the progressive modification of social institutions and agencies which vitally affect the mental health of large groups, so that the principles, methods and practices in use may more successfully conserve