Secular acceleration, forexample an increase in height in groups of people over a period of time of morethan a century, is a unique, perhaps “ecological” event. In the study presentedhere, historical patient files from the Jena Psychiatric Clinic were evaluatedin relation to the problem of acceleration. A first sampling of 119 patientfiles for the years 1880-1890 revealed that, for children and adolescents upuntil the end of their twentieth year of life, the average age at the time oftheir first admission was 17 years. Compared to this, the first admission of asecond sample of 132 patient records for the years 1985-1987 revealed a clearlyyounger average age at first admission of 11 years. This difference in age wasfound to be statistically significant. The heights of 14-year-old subjects fromthe city of Jena for the years 1880 to 1975 obtained from the literature showeda documented increase in height of almost 20 cm. The results of ourinvestigation revealed that, in addition to physical acceleration, there wasalso an advancement of pathological mental processes in the course of a periodof 100 years.
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