Order in Disorder?

When Karl Menninger was a reporter on the Topeka Capital, he learned to pack the "who, what, where, when & how" of a news story lead into a few short, sharp words. Then he became a psychiatrist, like his father and brother William (TIME, Oct. 25, 1948), and ever since, he has found himself hearing and talking, reading and writing a jabberwocky jargon which meant different things to different experts and nothing to most laymen. Last week, Psychiatrist Menninger struck a blow for common sense and understandability in the naming of mental illness.

At the American Psychiatric Association meetings in Los Angeles, Dr. Menninger suggested that the pseudo-scientific classification of mental illnesses into neuroses (or psychoneuroses) and psychoses be dropped, and with it such terms as schizophrenia, catatonia, paranoia and manic-depressive psychosis. To take its place he proposed a simple one-two-three-four grading of mental illnesses according to severity, this to be judged by the degree to which the patient has lost contact with the world around him.

"The process involved in mental illness," said Psychiatrist Menninger, "consists of increasing efforts by the patient to keep control of himself. These take changing forms. But there is order even in this disorder." Theory aside, he had a practical reason for the suggested change: "Four-fifths of the people who have what we have been calling a psychosis or psychoneurosis get well in the better hospitals, where such terms are not used in the patient's hearing."

Dr. Menninger's idea did not come to a vote, but he expects to bring it up again soon at a get-together on psychoanalysis in London.

In the scientific sessions, where 118 papers were given (many of them in highly technical trade talk), members heard: P: A report by a University of Washington research team that excessive crying by infants, usually called "three-months' colic," is directly traceable to the mother's behavior. If the mothers are inconsistent in their care, offering food irregularly, sometimes nursing the babies when they are restless and at other times ignoring them, the babies not only cry more but grow more slowly than those who get consistent, considerate care. P: The story of a young mother with a triple personality. Drs. Corbett H. Thigpen and Hervey M. Cleckley of Augusta, Ga. told of a patient whom they called Eve White who had a second personality, "Eve Black," and a third known simply as "Jane." Prim and proper Eve White seemed to be unaware of the existence of Eve Black, but in the Eve Black phase she became coquettish and informal to the point of recklessness. Moreover, Eve in the third person. Sample quote: "When Black knew Eve White, and spoke of her I go out and get a little polluted, she wakes up with the hangover and timidly wonders what in hell's made her so damned sick." Jane suddenly appeared during a psychiatric interview. She knows what both Eves can do, and shows promise of doing better in life than either of them.

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