this state so that it gives some good social chances to the
superficial too, and this not only to the rich, but to those on every
level. Only the nervous system cannot so easily be adjusted to the new
regime. The loose interplay of the brain cells without the serious
training of discipline must involve disorganization of the mind-brain
system which may count often most powerfully in those spheres in which
the mere needs of life are felt the least. There is only one great
remedy: discipline, training for concentrated attention, for a work in
submission of will to a steady purpose. And psychotherapeutic effort
will often demand such a training for work rather than a reduction of
work and rest.

The most alarming product of the neglect in training is found in many of
those retarded children who at fifteen show the intelligence of a boy of
eight. They are not imbeciles and do not belong in the psychiatric
domain; their development has simply been suspended by a mistaken
education. Of course no neglect would have led to it without a
constitutional, inherited weakness of the central nervous system, but
the weakness would never have led to the retardation if perhaps a
mistaken parental indulgence had not allowed a life without forced
effort and, therefore, without progress. Even such extreme cases may not
show on the surface. The boy may pass as all right if we meet him at a
ball; only his tutor knows the whole misery. Still less does the surface
view of many a grown-up neurasthenic alarm us who seems to live a
well-ordered, perhaps an enviable life, and yet who suffers the penalty
of a life without concentrated effort, really without anything to do in
spite of a thousand engagements. Moreover this lack of important
activity may often be forced on our patients. Married women without
children, without household responsibilities, and without interests of
their own and without strong nervous constitution will soon lose the
power of effort and their brain will succumb. A dreary monotony is
dangerous even for the worker; for the non-worker it may be ruinous.

Yet mere flippant excitement and superficial entertainment is nothing
but a cheap counterfeit of what is needed. Voluntary effort is needed,
and this is the field where the psychotherapist must put in his most
intelligent effort. There is no one for whom there is not a chance for
work in our social fabric. The prescription of work has not only to be
adjusted to the abilities,