PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 56, 3 September 1926, Page 10

PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

j _ 1 INSTINCT OF IMMORTALITY HUNGER OF BODY AND SOUL ADDRESS BY BEY. D. M. NIBLOCK. A remarkably interesting address was given in the Concert Chamber by tne Bey. D. Moncur Niblock last evening upon "Practical Psychology." Mr. Albert Bussell (president of the Wellington Practical Psychology Club) prosided, and introduced the speaker. It was difficult to know, said Mr. Niblock, how to describe the science, save as tho science of the soul, or mind. What again was the mind? That was equally difficult to define. The science had also been callqd the study of human behaviour —a definition weak in some points. SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY. There was now the school of the configurationists, who were keen on examining the different parts of the man and co-relating the studies of the mind and body. Another, an American school, held ' that the man must be studied as the whole, but it had not y t contributed a great ■ deal to the subject. It would be a great thing for mankind when all these students came to a common understanding. Personally, as a priest of the Church of England, he was keenly interested in psychology in the light of the Bible. ACADEMIC BEGINNING NECESSARY. A beginning must be made with academic psychology, the old psychology. Without it the new psychology could never be understood, though both differed. Tho old psychology dealt with cognition, and its results. A knowledge of physiology was also necessary, to value the movements of nerves and body called behaviour. THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY. The new psychology dealt with conscious, subconscious, and super conscious parts of tho human mind, one mind functioning in three directions. It dealt also with complexes and other things dealing with the urge to immortality. A complex was a group of emotional ideas with a sense of pleasure,pain, or inferiority. VARIOUS COMPLEXES. These complexes had power to move as in their own direction. A concrete instance was 'that of a soldier needing help. He was very nervous. During the war he was a stretcher bearer, and he saw a ghastly, thing he could never forget. That was his complex, consciously being' put back by his mind, until the emotional complex broke through, and he did some very extraordinary things, eventually giving evidence of troubles that .enabled a cure to be made. Repression was the nonvoluntary driving back of such complexes. Then there was suppression. Bationalisation of an action existed in the case of the man who wanted to play golf. He had business, but the afternoon was so fine that he could not resist the golf. He had also promised to take his wife out the first free afternoon. He was unable to resist the driving feeling, and took his wife to the links, and played execrably. He realised that his bad play was tho result of "rationalising" the ac: of do- .*■ ; none of the three things completely, all of which he felt he should have done. Keeping back ghosts of the past was "resistance." Transference was the seeing of all our own failings in other people. There was one great thing in the new psychology, the/ instinct to immortality, the "levido." Instincts manifested themselves all through life. The child craved food. -.As it developed it learnt the meaning of pleasure and pain, from which. came experience awakening the intellectual sphere. 'Later on the ego took charge, and controlled the activities of the instinctive mind. THE PORCE WITHIN. Within us was a force which was the motive power of all action, moving to supply the necessities of life. Instinctive force was from God, but everything depended on the direction it was made to take. People had hitherto ignored this instinct to immortality which everyone possessed. Nobody wished to die, or readily accept disease. We rebelled against old age. Each man and woman felt that they were created to be better than they are. That was the instinct to immortality. Human instincts were acquisi.tr'eriess, love, self-preservation, pugnacity, etc. Hunger, the first appetite, existed' in tho intellectual, physical,' and emotional planes, and if stifled in one would overflow in one of tho others. ■ MIND MUST BE FED. Man hungered for love and for intellectual food, and he who did not feed his mind as well as his body would find the latter's desires taking control. It was equally disastrous to starve the spirit. The spiritual part of man made for happiness, faith in other men, and hope. The second instinct was acquisitiveness. It was a necessary instinct, whether for the mental, physical, or spiritual acquirements. Then came love of life and self -prcservati an. Where its urges were rightly followed it led to the well-being of every part of the body. Pugnacity enabled us to keep social or business positions and to attain to desired possessions. Christ was not always mild. He turned the moneychangers out with violence, and had called some men liars. We, must fight to develop ourselves to-day. He Himself had lived a fuller life since deciding to put aside every obstacle to the life he had chosen to live. INFERIORITY COMPLEX. Many people were suffering from an inferiority complex. Nobody was afraid of other people, or of their opinions, who followed tho urge to immortality. What one wished ardently enough to be, one . became, and once this was realised, one progressed towards the ideal, whether it was in business or in happiness of mind and body. Turning to the practical application of psychology to Christianity, Mr. Niblock used the story of Nicodemus, whose kingdom lay within himself awaiting his triumphant entry. THE TRUE KINGDOM. ."You may see your kingdom," concluded the speaker, "but do not be content with that, enter into it. Build up the 'kingdom you want to come about, and then enter'into it. Always think positively and never negatively. Bring all your instincts to bear, and you will find your mind getting hold of these things; you will find your home, your business, yourself, will change." A number of questions \vere answered by the lecturer, who was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.