TITLE: THE HUMAN PERSONALITY AND MENTAL DISORDERS OF
ENVIRONMENT
Authors: Professor dr Radovanovic M. MD, PhD, academic, specialist in
hygiene
Professor dr Kristoforovic-Ilic M. MD, PhD, specialist in hygiene
Address for correspondence:
1.
Professor dr Miroslav Radovanovic, MD, PhD, academic,
VANU – SANU,
21000 Novi Sad,
Sv. Markovica 6,
Yugoslavia,
2.
Professor dr Kristoforovic-Ilic Miroslava, MD, PhD, specialist in hygiene
Institute of Public Health -Medical faculty
21000 Novi Sad
Futoska 121
Yugoslavia
kristof@eunet.yu
Key words: Mental disorders, environmental pollution, family, personality, and
disorders
Learning objectives: (expected outcome)
Postgraduates students and the public health professionals should be
familiar with different types of human personality, human needs, environmental
and their elements of individual influence on human health (direct and indirect),
settlements, increased urbanizations, population migration, wars, mechanisms
accommodation to phrustrationem, prevention
Synopsis:
Mental pollution is of one global ecological problem: originates from public
social human environment and exerts influence on individual, on smaller or
bigger groups in the same community. Environments, which are provided on
natural way, exist in ideal mutual balance and in balance with human nature.
Possible sources of mental disorders are family, preschool institutions, schools,
working area, communal environment, big public social community-the
settlements, region, state-toward global community – the entire world. The
communal environment in larger city concentration loses the character of urban
neighborhood, which one can recognize, well know and whit that it is associated,
then mutual helping shoves every needed solidarity whit those, who met with an
accident and tragedy. Through European program of health cities and health
schools one should act on all fields of protection and training of human
environment and mental health.
Teaching methods:
Transparency presentation, Oral lecture, Distribution of the
literature to small group of students, Discussion about target
themes. Each class will include a lecture portion that
examines the individual and public health applications of the
assigned reading (reading, problem sets, exercises, Internet
searches, and discussions..
Specific recommendations:
- to take attention on different environment pollution on mental health;
- to make protocol investigations of environment pollution.
- write on a seminar about problem which are considering
- Students are expected to participate actively in class through
discussion, questions, activities and group projects.
Assessment of students (type of examination):
- according to knowledge of environment and mental hygiene, student has to
explain different sources of pollution;
- to connect the risk-factors with possibility of increasing mental disorders;
- and to make decision for prevention;
- to explain some situation according existing data (model).
- oral exam.
CONTENT
(basic knowledge, methods, case studies)
The human personality and mental disorders of environment .............................. 3
1. Introduction.................................................................................................... 4
2. Forming and human development of personality........................................... 4
3. The human behavior and all what has influence on it .................................... 5
4. Causes and sources of mental pollution ........................................................ 5
5. Prevention measures .................................................................................... 6
5.1. Conclusion .............................................................................................. 7
RESOURCES (recommended readings et al.)
1. UNEP/EPA: all issues with topics about environment,
environmental health, environmental pollution and mental disorders
2. WHO: Health 21: the impact for all policy framework for the WHO
European Region, European Health for All Series; No. 6, Regional
Office for Europe, Copenhagen, 1999. 64-112.
3. WHO: The World Health Report 1998. Life in the 21st century a
vision for all, Report of the Director-General, Geneva, 1998.
4. Genetics and Public Health in the 21st Century: Using Genetic
Information to Improve Health and Prevent Disease, Edited by MJ
Khoury, W Burke, and E Thomson, Oxford University Press, 2000
5. WHO: all issues with topics about mental hygiene
REFERENCES:
Ginsburg SW: The mental health movement and its theoretical
assumptions. in Community Prograams for mental Health, ed. by Kotinsky R,
Witmer H. Cambridge, Harvard Un. Press 1955
Joint Comm. on Mental Illness and Health: Action for Mental Health, NY,
Basic Boks, 1961
Harrison’s plus 14th Ed. CD-ROM, Mc Graw-Hill
Radovanovic M. Mentalna higijena u Udzbenik higijene, redakcija
Radovanovic M, Jevtic Z, Medicinska knjiga, Beograd, 1992 299
Radovanovic M. Pogorsanje medjuljudskih odnosa svakog pogadja.
Covek i zivotna sredina, 1974 3 34
Radovanovic M. Ljudska licnost i mentalna zagadjenja zivotne sredine,
Ekologija 6, Ekoloski pokret grada Novog Sada, Novi Sad 1977
Smolin, Grosvendor Nutrition Science & Applications, Thitd ed. ICBN: 003-025893-6, 2000 511
Trajkovic M. Odnos partija i pokreta; prilog razmatranju ekoloske
problematike u Ekologija i kriza, Polja, Novi Sad, 1989 114
WHO Schizophrenia. An Int. Follow-up Study, Chichester, England, John
Wiley, 1979.
WHO Report 2001 Menthal Health: New understanding, New Hope, WHO
Geneva 2001 ISBN 92-4- 156201 – 3.
EVALUATION OF UNIT BY STUDENTS (student questionnaire)
***
THE HUMAN PERSONALITY AND MENTAL DISORDERS OF ENVIRONMENT
Definitions
Mental health: A comprehensive definition of mental health is that given by
Ginsburg (1955), who stresses the relatonship of mental health to mastery of the
environment as manifested in three crucial areas of living – love, work, and play.
Per Ginsburg, mental health is “the ability to hold a job, have a family, keep out
of trouble with the law, and enjoy the usual opportunities for pleasure”.
Mental disorders: Defining mental disorders is problematic because the
consensus that exists regarding the under\sirability of a somatic disorder (i.e.,
pain, disability, death) does not always exist for the symptoms of mental disorder.
1. Introduction
Twenty years ago, when mental disorders of environment were for the very first
time mentioned by us, it was received with wonder and doubt. Massive mental
pollution which is today appearing on the level of family, school, work, then on
communal, ethnic and interethnic milieu in one country, and also on international
level in form of smaller and bigger misunderstandings, conflikts and wars, whose
aim is military, economic, cultural and other kind of domination and control, what
also rather often brings with itself genocide consequences, disturbs mental
health of single person and community, induces conflicts situations, disables
zealously people at working in their wish to unite solving of global existential
problems of population. Mental pollution is thereof one global ecological problem.
This problem must be on proper way familiarized, i.e. one must identify cause,
the springs, appearance shapes and consequences, so that he could plan and
realize effective prevention of this evil. Mental pollution originates from public
social human environment and exerts influence on individual, on smaller or
bigger groups in the same community. Environments, which are provided on
natural way, exist in ideal mutual balance and in balance with human nature. If
we want to know better mental pollution, we must to remark that one single
person and one smaller human group have less influence on a big public social
human environment than opposite. However single person and smaller or bigger
groups and also the biggest human groups are equal possible sources of mental
disorders. When you want to understand origin of mental pollution, you will have
to know better the human personality.
2. Forming and human development of personality
The human personality includes the hereditary component and acquired life’s
experiences at the time of being borne and the time after this, i.e.the time from
influence of other persons from public social environments, in which the child has
been borned, is growing up, goes to school and does its own profession and
other social roles. By all this influences the personality of mother is key for
process of personality forming. In the case of unavoidable loss of mother before
the third child year the best solution for him is to be adopted by the family who
wants this child so badly and it has also conditions to raise it – that goes without
saying – this family is agreed to social supervision in form of social service. Then
the child should be on legal way adopted. The adoption after the third year of
child’s living is not nor desirable, often also unsuccessful because child had
already remembered its own mother and the relation with her has been even
more consolidated. With all respect to the meaning of influence of all other
persons, with whom child after the third year will have contacts, one is of the
opinion, that counselor and teacher in preschool institutions is from great
importance. After family that’s the second and most important issue in the
process of making personality.
3. The human behavior and all what has influence on it
The human personality we are estimating on base of behavior in society, i.e. on
base of relations with others. This behavior is not the same even by very stabile
persons, because it depends on many factors, among them mental disorder has
one important place. Every human behavior is considered to be consequence of
impulses, which are making people to act. These impulses are wishes made in
consciousness, with purpose to do something and to attain something, and these
wishes are turning into strong motives or initiatives. Motives are inducing
irresistible one single person to act, so that the existing wishes may come true. If
this situation would be unsuccessful, mental disorder will appear, i.e.it is about
strong feeling of unsatisfaction, which again motivates to a new action, a new
true to succeed. Something stronger and deeper the more fundamentally from
motives are needs. So in situation of psyche, in which certain motives are not
permanent satisfied, which also are connected to basic human desires. If one of
this is for many long time not satisfied, the harder disorder of psyche balance
(homeostasis), and this situation induce to action whose aim is achievement of
that need. If it would be unsuccessful, we will have the situation called
frustrations, it is about very different serious jumping out from current psychical
balance. The reactions on frustrations can be entire with possibility of rational
solutions from current situation; on the other hand reactions could be also
irrational neurotic, what will person lead into the phase of neurosis.
Reaction on frustration
Aggression is normal reaction on frustration. Positive attitude is compensation;
Identification is psychic equal with somebody or something; egocentrisms is for
occupation with its own personality; rationalization is believe phase in fiction
reasons; projection- is directing of unsuccessful to irrelevant reason; negativism
– self retreat; dream on day – irrational adapting; regression- return to childhood
naive; repression – forgetting of unsuccessful when unsuccessful is fixed in
unconsciousness.
4. Causes and sources of mental pollution
Possible sources of mental disorders are family, preschool institutions, schools,
working area, communal environment, big public social community-the
settlements, region, state-toward global community – the entire world. The
communal environment in larger city concentration loses the character of urban
neighborhood, which one can recognize, well know and whit that it is associated,
then mutual helping shoves every needed solidarity whit those, who met with an
accident and tragedy. Instead of these today in cities we have drastic example of
mental disorders in form of extreme human alienation and indifferent toward the
neighbors, because even though they live near each other, they are practical
strangers. Also mutual solidarity of living on this way: disrespect of decision
about peace and oreder, conserving mutual social property in the building. In
special situations and particularly during wars, the communal mental disorders
has brutal character of different forms of criminal, the fundamental physical
endanger of majority from unrestrained minority, i.e. it is about fear for survival.
The number of committed thefts is increasing, violence, extort, grabbing and
mureder. This psychosis of general social insecurity can paralize a normal
peaceful life of majority. Under such circumstances the class, ethnic, religious
and economic segregation could appear. This is only the beginning of grief, poor,
alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution etc.In relative calm circumstances the
material tax has shocking influence on citizen in the matter of infrastructure urban
concentration conserving different manager and supervision mechanism, which
we call bureaucratic apparatus of state. The dependence of urban way of living is
much too big from successful function of complicated expensive energy system,
transport, waterpower engineering, remowing of waste materials, etc.
By every falling out of order and if this situation takes too much time then it is
source of strong stress situations for all those who are dependent on this
systems.
In bigger social community the source of mental pollution are different groups,
societies, movements, political gropus, different manager structure, public
information’s etc. All this exists in bigger or smaller quantity in modern social
community. Misinformations can be skilled constructed, which if they are
permanent repeated could the false picture of reality create (like everything goes
normal and successful and for all benefit. Today it is about television, email etc.,
when the news and the picture are currently with unlimited range productions. So
will the public information’s opinion created in favor of this message and to the
disadvantage of others. The typical examples of this are recent wars in Somalia,
Irak, Ex-Yugoslavia countries). The sanctions, which are embroidered in many
countries, are on the base of adequate information. Tragedy and brutality of this
kind of information makes the impudent justification even those which are
massacres of many people with plan realized. Religions can in extraordinary
situations be source of mental disorder instead of providing peace and love
among people; they induce conflikts, blud and genocid. This happens when
some religions has extremely nationalist character. What all this has said, all
possible forms of mental pollution environment are included.
5. Prevention measures
Primary prevention involves the promotion of general mental health and
the protection against the occurrence of specific diseases. Promotion mental
health is a perplexing problem a/ there must be a definition of mental health b/ it
must be assumed that mental health can be affected by measures undertaken
during the lifetime of the individual who is the target of the measures.
Next measure of prevention considers the personality of parents:
education until this level when they can be considered very successful teachers
of their own children.
Public health nursing which is made from medical nurses, through wellprepared programs during house visit can give strong support to basic aim.
Patronage psychology and social worker should be involved in these programs.
Through European program of health cities and health schools one should
act on all fields of protection and training of human environment and mental
health. The social milieu, manager social supervision institutions and services
with all together must guarantee the fundamental civil rights, the freedom of men
and equal rights for all without different. All must together act, so that every
person could grow up into one moral and stabile person.
Secondary prevention encompasses early diagnosis and prompt and
adequate treatment to prevent sequelae and limit disability. The value of
secondary prevention is untested with regard to most mental disorders. Current
efforts at early diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders are in: a/ screening
large population groups, b/ crisis intervention c/ education the public to recognize
mental illness in the early stages
Tertiary prevention encompasses rehabilitation in an attempt to reduce the
disability.
6. Conclusion
The fact, that problem of mental pollution of environment has global –
world level, UN and its organs should be dealing with this question so that they
could create effective system for absolute protection of civil rights and
fundamental freedom of all people, protection and safety from agression; no
matter who is using her; they must make shore that in all countries every kind of
discrimination goes apart-race, ethnic and economic; so that spirit of tolerance,
understanding and peaceful solving of misunderstandings should be the basic
method of mutual cooperation. So would mental pollution as one global
ecological problem smaller from all people.