Mother-Love May Be Destructive

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 408, 17 July 1928, Page 1

Mother-Love May Be Destructive

A ttempts to Mould Young Minds Le dto Mental Distortions NOTED PSYCHOLOGIST’S VISIT “The self-sacrificing love of a mother has been the most destructive force in life.” .Dr. P. Fennelly, LL.D., past president of the British Association of Practical Psychology, London, made the above remark this morning during the course of a talk on psychology. With his wife he arrived in Auckland by the Marama. Both the doctor and Mrs. Fennelly have been longing to pay New Zealand a visit for many years and at last they are able to do so. “The principal objeqt of psychology Is to trace the origin of the condition which prevents the full and complete expression of life and to find out why it is that people are nervous, worried and frightened,” said the doctor this morning. ‘‘These conditions can invariably be traced to conditions of childhood when the children were denied the privilege of adjusting themselves to reality in their own way and at their own pace and in their own time. “More harm has been done by the over-zealous attitude of parents in seeking to mould and fashion their children’s minds according to an ideal than from any other source. “The child, if left to itself, has a most astonishing power of adjustment, for we have at last come to realise that the secret of a child’s mental development is within him just as the secret of physical development is. We might as well try to shape a body into some form it was never intended to assume as to mould a child’s mind into the ideal of another person. “The repressions which were imposed upon us in the effort to make us something we were never intended to be has distorted and twisted the whole mental attitude of the child. Conditions may not be very marked during the early years, but when maturity has been reached it becomes more emphasised and the astonishing condition of a dual personality arises, that is, one personality in conflict with the other. “It is this conflict which goes on in the unconscious which constitutes the source of failure, misery and disorder, and the entire effort of pyschology to-day is to overcome the unfortunate conditions of childhood and to merge the two personalities in what is known as ‘whole.’ ” Hr. Fennelly has come to New Zealand to see a country the praises of which have been ringing in his ears for the past 40 years. He may lecture in New Zealand, as he has been lecturing in South Africa, India and Australia, but his foremost object in visiting the Hominion is to see it from the tourist’s point of view and to enjoy a holiday. Hr. Fennelly has practised psychology in London for many years and speaks of the great good which has been done by this science, which is now playing such a prominent part in the physical, mental and moral lives of the people of to-day.