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Edited by Milton J. E. Senn, M.D. New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1950. 181 pp.
SYMPOSIUM ON THE HEALTHY PERSONALITY. Transactions of Special Meetings of Conference on Infancy and Childhood, June 8-9
and July 3-4, 1950. Edited by Milton J. E. Senn, M.D. New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1950. 298 pp.
FAMILY CENTERED MATERNITY AND INFANT CARE. Supplement I to Problems of Infancy and Childhood Transactions, Fourth Conference, 1950. Edited by Edith B. Jackson, M.D. and Genevieve Trainham, R.N., with the assistance of members of the Rooming-In Committee. New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1950. 29 pp.
These volumes constitute the further proceedings of the conferences sponsored by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, some of which have been reviewed in This QUARTERLY.1 Drawing from research in the biological, sociological, and psychological sciences, a group of some fifty professional workers and scientists aim to arrive at some unified criteria applicable in our society to the furtherance of a program for promoting mental health. Two main problems confronted the Conference: to determine what essential factors constitute and promote mental health, and to derive conclusions useful for the specialist in his applied science and valid also for the education of the layman. This involved clarification and definition of concepts and terms in order to effect some semantic unity between the sciences.
The positive factors causing mental health, rather than prevention of mental disease, put the discussions in a broad frame of reference. The themes of the papers and the discussions centered around three main issues: first, the nature of constitutional factors and prenatal environmental factors in the human organism; second, the postnatal developmental process in the individual in relation to the immediate parental and familial environment; third, the larger cultural and societal factors.
The task of summarizing for the public the many-sided discussion wa