Despite all the strides made by medicine in recent years, it is not known definitely just why some men and women reach mental old age while their years are still few and why others in their nineties retain keen minds and forceful characters that make them leaders among men, writes Marjorie van de Water in "Everyweek Magazine," in U.S.A, Although little ig known about the underlying causes of mental old age. practically every cne has watched the outward signs of gradual deterioration or sudden breakdown when some old person in the family begins to show his years.
Loss of memory, absentmindedness, depression, fears, suspicions, and lack of confidence. These are t; al of mental old age.
Perhaps you will be surprised to lea 2d that the "faults of the aged" were present in the same individuals in less conspicuous form when they were young and charming. The young woman who chatters is "vivacious and gay.
A grandmother with the same tendency is garrulous." A youth whose necktie is askew and socks sagging is "Bohemian." An elderly man with the same inattentiveness to attire is "untidy." So take warning! If you would avoid the unpleasant characteristics of the aged, you must be on your guard now before age fixes your character and relaxes your powers of self-control.
Many of the psychological difficulties of old age are summed up by Dr. Nolan D. C. Lewis. director of the New York Psychiatrie Institute, in the one word "inelasticity." Physical old age means loss of ability of the body to compensate for sudden strains by accommo dating actions of the heart, respiration, blood.pressure. There is a hardening of the arteries. Mental old age, Dr. Lewis ex-us, may mean a failure of compensation at chological levels when conflicts and mental strains, once taken in stride. now break through and overwhelm the personality. Ph: cal old age, bringing with it a tendency to tire easily at the same time that failing senses make every situation more difficult, complicate the mental picture.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.