Mental Hygiene is simply defined as keeping up on one’s mental health. An article entitled, “Mental Hygiene for Geniuses: Psychiatry in the early Soviet Years.” The piece describes areas of the Soviet Union that focus on psychiatry and genius. There is a portion of care for the mentally ill and a section regarding genius. The premise of the article is to prove that having a mental illness does not mean one is a genius. It also highlights the importance of nurturing genius and those with mental illness and how the Soviet Union accomplish both goals.
The start of the article describes the Soviet Union as a broken country. Originally, the goal with psychiatry in the country was to diagnose the mentally ill and subsequently admit them to a hospital. This presented many issues and around 1915 efforts were made to create a new plan. Instead of sending mentally ill patients to a hospital, they would focus on outpatient care and prevention. The goal was to go through the entire population and take note of those experiencing mental illness. Eventually, in the 1920’s, this plan was implemented. However, many of those in the psychiatry field were skeptical. As for regular citizens, it made them all suspects. It also caused businesses to seek those that they assumed were talented, just because of their mental illness and the supposed connection between that and genius.
The next phase described was eugenics, where the desirable characteristics of a population are perpetuated throughout a society by the use of selective breeding. Though it was considered ethical at one time, after the nazis attempted to use it, it was finally thought of as incorrect. Many people believed in the practice, from psychiatrists to politicians. The man behind this was by the name of Lev Rosenstein. There was also another who was making strides in social care though his goal was to protect and care for the geniuses, not the mentally ill. He wanted to protect those increasingly intelligent people from scoff and scorn and instead cultivate their talents for the betterment of society. He countered that, contrary to the belief that socialism would fix treatment of the genius population, that such a change would take time. He discussed that some of the problems these people face are related to their obvious intelligence. That they because of their unique personality traits, things like antisocial behavior, “individualism,” and “frequent ailments,” (Sirotkina, 151). He also mentioned the sad stories of those great people and hoped to prevent such occurrences.
He goes on to describe the many ways that they are abused, resulting in their living in poverty and dying early, due to their inability to conform to social norms, as well as their different forced actions to please the media and the masses when they are nothing like that. He also mentions that because they are antisocial, they may end up in asylums or prisons. Most importantly, he discusses the fact that if they are cured of such ailments, the result may be devastating for their creativity. He also mentions aesthetic medicine as a means of making them more presentable to society.
The interesting thing about the article is that the purpose is not fully clear. The author mentions many related topics but fails to connect them as one would suspect. Throughout the article, he talks of genius and mental illness and their possible similarities or connections. In the end, it is clear that these issues are important. But, it does cause one to wonder whether the issue of mental illness and genius are truly so intricately related, or if genius is a thing all on its own, with no true relation, but associated disorders that one incurs at birth due to their intelligence. Furthermore, it is insanely clear that both genius and mental disorders are not so simple to understand. There is much more to each of them than meets the eye. As the study continues, it is essential to realize that science and medicine have yet to fully understand the brain. It is a growing profession, but since the brain is so complicated, it may be many decades or centuries before it is fully understood. Interestingly to note is how normal these people can be.
A study once said that when a random sample of people entered a facility to be evaluated, some had experienced mental illness throughout their lives, while others had not. Interestingly, they miss-diagnosed many of them, stating that some had disorders when they really did not, and some did not have disorders when they clearly did. This proved that people can live life normally with mental disorders, unlike what movies or the media like to portray. In conclusion, it is clear that there is a connection between mental disorders and genius, as there are social programs, mental illness, and genius in the early Russia.
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uvu.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=66d65c44-3153-4c97-8401-5394f506f4f8%40sessionmgr4006&vid=3&hid=4203
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