Book Review

Abstract

FROM the early days of the primitive curse, life has always imposed its strain upon mankind. It is the penalty we pay for living at all. Philosophers have always assured us that we cannot have life without it. Indeed, they have assured us that some degree of strain is good for us. There is, however, implicit in the title of this discussion the suggestion that the stress of modern life has new elements, and is excessive. In the street, the trained eye detects in the physiognomy of the people the early stages of that concern which, in the consulting room and in the hospital ward, shows itself so frequently as the more established picture of ‘anxiety neurosis', unloading itself upon the digestion, the circulation and other bodily functions, which are really more sinned against than sinning. ‘Functional’ diseases, as against ‘organic’, have increased, whether in the field of the nervous system proper, the heart and blood vessels or the internal secreting glands. I must not stay to expand, or even to justify, these statements; few, if any, medical men will contest them. In case after case, a tactfully conducted pursuit after fundamental causes removes the screen of headache, insomnia, indigestion and fatigue, and the anxiety factor is revealed.