The nervous life by G. E. Partridge (1911) PDF eBook
By the nervous life, as the term is used in this book, is meant two conditions: first, the nervous social and industrial life, best typified by the stress and strife of our great cities; second, the nervous life as expressed in the temperament of the nervous individual.
Both these elements of the nervous life are on the increase, and each acts upon and produces the other. We have yet to learn the full significance of these conditions, and how to live in the midst of them without suffering as a nation from impaired nervous forces, and without transmitting evils to future generations. So the problem of the nervous life is before us, especially in America, as at no other time in history. It must be studied from every point of view: social, psychological, ethical, and medical, until we have a medical practice, preventive hygiene, and an educational system, capable of controlling the situation.
The purpose of this book is to point out some of the causes and conditions of the nervous life, especially those that appear to be psychological, and to suggest the principles of control upon which a hygienic regimen must be based. These principles are then applied to several problems of mental and physical hygiene, it is hoped in a way to help anyone interested in his personal problem. It is not the intention to discuss nervous disorders, and what is said is addressed to the well rather than to the sick. It seems true, however, that the principles of living are not different for well and ill; that the same thoughts apply to get well as to staying well. Indeed it is urged that this truth is not sufficiently understood and that the treatment of the sick and the delicate is too often unnatural and narrow.