Understanding yourself : the mental hygiene of personality / by Ernest R. Groves.

  • Ernest R. Groves
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Understanding yourself : the mental hygiene of personality / by Ernest R. Groves. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    vital organs that are held in proper place by cushions of fat. This second type requires less food and more exercise than the first. There is greater resistance to nervous strain and less tendency to overwork. The medium type is most fortunate because it avoids either extreme. There is great variation in this group be¬ cause many that belong to it tend toward stoutness or toward thinness, and habits of living may easily carry them over to the first or to the second group, according to their natural trends. By knowing what these are we dis¬ cover the traits characteristic of the individual body and disposition. To get the most out of life and to obtain the greatest efficiency, these people need a program somewhere near half-way between that which best serves the interests of the other two types. For example, they need more food than the stocky type and not so much as the thin type. The nearer they come to belonging to the former or the latter group, the greater need of adopting the regimen which is desirable for those of that turn. Clearly more than diet is involved in the effort of the tall thins and the short stouts and the intermediates to make the best possible use of their physical resources. Of course, such a rough classification does not take into ac¬ count individual variation from the type, and idiosyn¬ crasies, but it is useful if not taken too seriously. Certainly no one is likely to go far in getting an objective knowledge of his resources and tendencies who does not frankly face the meaning of the architecture of his body. More is neces- [S^]