HYSICAL fitness expert
f John B. Kelly reports
Readers Digest, July 1956)
nat _U.S. youngsters are
Owing weaker and flabbier
every year and that their lack
physical fitness constitutes
ne of our gravest national
oblems,

The same could be said of
enada. That is one reason
Why Science of Health and
Fong Life in the USSR, by

teresting reading. Here is a
j.- Port of how the Soviet Union
ee preventing illness by en-
Couraging its people to “keep
™ condition.”
# the Carters’ report deals
jvith the rules for health as
practiced in the Soviet Union.
ey of the rules are familiar
4 us but Just as many are not.
one big difference lies in the
@ oetlying approach.
WY The theory and practice of
of hese Tules in the USSR is
ased On the findings and
geeechings of the physiologist
@2n Pavlov. The major dis-
fe Vcries of Pavlov and _ his
¢ Ollowers as stated by the
getters include: “Your brain
@ the master-control that
80verns the working of every

(ergan, ever
body.” Y part of your

# The b

ody is i 3
dem, Y 1s a united organ

So anything that helps
— body get into condition
4 akes your nervous system
* brain (mind) healthier
_ Human beings are able
© strengthen the central
Mervous system and reinforce
© Controlling powers of the
pain. This is the way to good
€alth and a healthy old age.
q To strengthen the central
€rvous system and the body’s
Master-control, the brain,
pe Viet citizens use non-medical
oral. methods—“nature ap-
ed Scientifically.” They take
a baths, sun baths and rub-
vn baths to condition the
:. They condition them-
hes “s against changes of tem-
F 2 ure as prevention against
os ete. They do vigorous
SY exercise in much lar-
fon nounts than we do.* They
:.., Tol body weight by ach-
ee normal metabolism
ft er than by cutting calories.
ex build a conditioned-re-
* 0 insure regular restful
{ 4 P in place of sleeping pills.
a develop habits of work
: €ssen tension on the job.

c.. fad of “lolling around” on
aes they rest “actively.”
a = this and more is spelled
.. y the Carters in such a
me chet the reader can fol-
3 5 Tules. However, nature
a ied Scientifically is not the
ia higher a because health is
Ihe = y Individual matter, say
+ eVlovians. We all need
- God, sun, etc., but the
Bia vary with the indivi-
ie Nn this country, we are
Te of general rules for sun-

;

arters write on
iealth in USSR

bathing but we’d be surprised
if after careful examination
our physician prescribed a
specific, daily amount of sun,
just for us. This is customary
procedure in the Soviet Union.

In our own country, where
the profit motive rules, it is
more difficult to eat properly,
give up smoking, go to wonder-
tul vacation resorts, ete. But
here too the individual can,
through “personal invitation,
become more responsible for
his health. If you are satisfied
that your way of life is .a
healthy one, read this book.
Tt will open new vistas. If you
are in search of new Ways to
improve your health, this book
is for you. But a word of cau-
tion—grasp the principles and
apply them flexibly rather
than trying to imitate mechan-
ically.

Valuable as the Carters’
account is, it has a number of
shortcomings. In asking its
readers to accept at face value
the theories upon which these
health measures are based, it
is disappointing; we must have
more clinical proof.

When the Carters state that
in the USSR cigaret smokers
are considered “sick,” the
reader has a right to know
why. :

The report discards mental
upsets and illness with the
statement: “There are people
who can ‘think themselves
sick’, but Freud grossly ex-
aggerated how often this hap-
pens. Much more common
and more important to the
reople are the many upsets
ot our minds that arise from
upsets in body health.”

In the United States and
Canada, where mental health
is a No. 1 problem, we are in
cire need of help. If the Pavlo-
vians have better methods of
prevention and treatment of
mental illness, let’s hear them.
But to imply that mental ill-
ness is primarily a question
of body health without back-
ing it up is an inexcusable un-
scientific way.-of presenting
the matter.

A much more acceptable way
of relating Pavlov’s teachings
to mental illness would have
heen to report his discovery
that when tension and con-
flict arising from a person’s
relations to his “environment
are too great, the brain cells
may become exhausted and/or
diseased — resulting often-
times in mental illness. Treat-
ment, therefore,
clude not only strengthening
the body but also improving
the patient’s relation to his
environment or by improving
the patient’s ability to cope
with it through a recondition-
ing of his attitldes.

In other words, to achieve or
maintain good health, a person
may not only need good air,
sun, food and exercise; he may
also need to change his behav-
ior so that his social relations
do not give rise to unnecessary
stress and strain.

should in-.

The Canadian Ballet Company is now performing in Washington, and two mem-

bers of the cast, Glenn Gibson and Betty Pope of Vancouver, are shown in Juan
Pas de Deux, which will have its world premiere August 20. The group will also present
Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Les Sylphides and Lilac Garden.

e

Fine portrayal of adolescent
strivings by late James Dean

T would be wrong to think
j of Rebel Without a Cause as
a film about problem children
or juvenile delinquents.
Society is the problem and
parents are the delinquents
here.

The three youngsters played
by James Dean, Natalie Wood
and Sal Mineo, have all been
involved with the police and
are to be again. Unhappy
home backgrounds have put
them at odds with society.

The hell that this can mean
for decent youngsters, and
the tragedies that can result,
are rammed home convincing-
ly in a powerful and disturbing
film that cannot fail to move
you.

James Dean, the brilliant
young actor who died last year
in a car crash, here gives a
fine,* sensitive performance
that exactly catches the stran-
gied frustrations of an ado-
lescent who wants to be
accepted by his fellows.

Young Natalie Wood, as his
girl friend, and Sal Mineo, as
a lonely child driven half crazy
fur lack of affection, complete

a trio who never relax a vice-
like grip on your interest and
sympathy. |

Director Nicholas Ray has
not been quite so successful
with the parents whose short-
comings have deprived the
children of love and security.
‘The weak husband, the nagging
wife, the aggressive father are
case-book quotations rather
than real people.

More disturbing in any case
then the individual parents is
the society of which the chil-
dren are a part. The setting
13 a small town in California
where everyone seems to have
enough to eat and decent
housing, and where the high
school children go to school
by car.

Yet the evidence of this film
which claims to be carefully
documented, is of widespread
indiscipline and gang violence
worse than might be expected
in an _ overcrowded slum.
School larks begin with beat-
ings-up—which nobody bothers
to stop — and go on to a
crazy game with stolen cars

August 10, 1956 —

which not surprisingly leads
to a boy’s death. :

Teachers and officials are
ignored or jeered at. The teen-
age gangs come and go at will,
and restraint only comes in
when the police appear, armed

end very ready to shoot to
kill.

Given this sort of set-up,
you don’t have to have an
unsatisfactory home life to get
into trouble. The bad home is
just part of a sick society.

we * *

An unburlesqued Cinderella
to charm children “without
sending their parents to sleep
takes some making these days,
but The Glass Slipper almost

brings it off, thanks to Leslie
Caron.

The French girl with the
urchin’s face and the dancer’s
body gives us a Cinderella in
which the conventional pink
icing of goody-goodiness has
been liberally dunked in a
piquant sauce.

THOMAS SPENCER

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 13