DOES MIND MATTER?

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 992, 7 June 1930, Page 5

DOES MIND MATTER?

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY IS CONSULTATION METHOD The first International Congress of Mental Hygiene ■will be held in a few weeks in America. Medical men and psychologists will meet in conference. Suggestions are already on foot for a simila.r rapprochment in Melbourne, and initial steps have already been taken by phychological investigators in this city and the British Medical Association, writes Professor J. A. Gunn, in the Melbourne "Argus."

Great interest has been taken in psychology in recent years by a wide circle of people, yet there are many who are still heard to ask “What Is phychology?” The vaguest, and indeed wildest, misconceptions of this science are to be met. There are some who confuse it with theosophy or with Christian Science, while others, having heard dimly of Sigmund Freud and his “censor,” conclude that psychology has affinities with the revelations of the Divorce Court, the problem play, or the parts that are “cut” from films before they are exhibited. Of course, psychology cannot close its eyes to the facts and ramifications of the sex instinct in man, byt this is merely because it takes as its field of study human life. But that is only one aspect of the whole study of the human mind of human behaviour. Some psychologists define psychology as the study of behaviour, others as the study of mind. Both statements are true, because most behaviour reveals a state of mind, and it is the state of mind which is not only the key to the meaning of the behaviour, but which primarily Interests the psychologist. States of mind or consciousness and overt acts of behaviour are equally manifestations of that personality, a complex world which psychologists both medical and non-medical are endeavouring to understand. Centuries of scientific labour have been expended on our understanding of the physical world; only recently has psychology come to its own, because only recently has man realised his ignorance of himself and bis amazingly complex “make-up.” Four Lines of Investigation The study of psychology has largely advanced by four methods of study, each of a certain value. The older psychology (and it goes back to the Greeks who spoke of the mind or soul as “Psyche”) laid stress on states of mind, and owed much to introspection, the habit of analysing one’s own mental states. Numerous philosophers (for until recently philosophy and psychology have been as mother and daughter) left records of analytic work based on such analysis. Mind became recognised as having three aspects Cnot separate compartments)—knowing, feeling, and willing (or desiring). Unfortunately the older psychology, which held undisputed sway until about the time of Charcot, say about 1880, was mainly interested in problems of knowledge, such as sensation, perception, conception. It spoke of man as an eminently reasonable and thoroughly respectable being. Mid-Victorian England would have been as shocked at the mention of the word “instincts” as at the mention of “legs,” and both were kept carefully muffled up.

Contacts with other races led ■to a development of observational psychology. Tribes were encountered by missionaries who were obliged to observe the great contrasts in behaviour, and were obliged to come to conclusions regarding the states of mind of these people for, here only lay the key to behaviour which seemed to Western eyes mad or disgusting or both. A man rubbing his stomach with a stone in the Strand would be hurried off to one of those institutions termed a “home,” but in some of the Pacific islands it was found that the behaviour must have some other significance and other treatment. Often he was performing an act of worship. Similar incongruities were seen in regard to the sense of shame and modesty on which primitive tribes had often as rigid ideas as the West, but they operate differently. It would not do to describe naked savages as shameless because they were naked where we are covered. In one case they wore only leggings, but if these fell off and the calf were exposed a man was often so ashamed that he would commit suicide.

Much may be learned by observation in this way, and the records of travellers and anthropologists residing among savage tribes did much to stimulate an interest in comparative psychology. The demand arose, however, in certain cases for the following up of observation by experiment, which is observation under test conditions which can he controlled and the response measured. The Germans were very keen on this work, and men such as Wundt and Fechner did pioneer work on the measurement of sensations. The contemporary German “Gestalt” school is interesting, but rather over-rated. Now attempts are made to measure all kinds of behaviour from intelligence to emotion. Cambridge has a large laboratory for experimental research with which the name of Dr. Myers will always be associated. Intelligence testing was compulsory In the United States army, and it has been used throughout the United States as a substitute for entrance examination in certain colleges. The various revisions of Binet’s tests are well known to educational workers. Owing, however, to the researches of Spearman in London a revision is taking place in these experiments, as it is in some instances doubtful whether the Intelligence test is as valuable as it looks. Another factor representing patience and tenacity of purpose so valuable in life compensates in many cases for the lack of high intelligence, and intelligence alone without “moral” is often of little worth.

The “New” Psychology All those lines of investigation possess value in the attempt to examine human nature, but one. of the most fascinating and most fruitful may be described as the mehod of consultation, using this word in its widest sense to include the telling of intimate experiences and worries to another, whether lie be a parent, teacher, doctor, psychologist, or priest, for down the centuries the confessional has aften served his purpose. In France, where an interest was created by the work of Charcot, it was realised that a great field of Investigation lay in the examiation of the emotions, the fears, worries, and aspirations of the individual, for In these lay the origin of many cases of hysteria, neurosis, and breakdown. Ribot and Pierre Janet (who still lectures in Paris) carried out investigations of great interest in his study of the abnormal individual. Diseases of memory and diseases of the personality—in short, the whole line of ; lie so t ailed “new psychology.

was laid down. Other works came in other countries. Freud, undoubtedly

one of greatest, was not altogether a pioneer, and he gave an undue emphasis to the sex element, largely no doubt because he came to specialise in cases of this kind. Jung, of Zurich, followed with his distinction of the “Introvert” type and the “extravert” type, as well as his amazing conception of the collective unconscious. He has been specialising in cases of mental breakdown in middle life from purely psychological causes. Similarly Adler would almost give to ambition and self-expres-sion the dominent part rather than sex. Foiled arms play a large part in his discussion and descriptions of neurosis in his scheme of individual psychology, as he calls it. In the British field, Hadfield Brown, McDougall, and the late Dr. Rivers are largely responsible for such work. Rivers saw In fear one of the greatest menaces to healthy mentality, and bis investigations regarding shell shock In the war were specially Interesting. Physical proximity to explosions did not explain shell shock, for many were unaffected. Those already weakened mentally by fright and worry in early childhood fell victims. Mind does matter enormously, and whatever conclusion is held regarding the relation of body and mind (there are seven theories in the field) there can be no doubt that the mind has its own problems. Without health of mind happiness is impossible, even if wealth and bodily health be present. The successful adjustment of the individual to his environment begins early, and an understanding of the mind of the child is necessary for teacher and parent. Lack of this understanding often produces serious maladjustment, which, it has been proved, leads on to inefficiency in work, unreliability of character, irritability of temperament, delinquency, and in extreme cases crime and insanity. Whatever other truths he learns, man must learn the truth about himself. His actions can be so sublime as to be only a little lower than those of the angels; they can be when misdirected lower than those of the beasts of the field. “There is nothing great in man (it has been said) but mind.” That is true, in spite of Watson, the American, who wishes us only to behave, but not to have minds or think. If, however, people really do not think, how did anybody ever happen to think of such a thing as to think that he thinks? Psychology deals not with “robots,” but with men and women who are living personalities, whose ideas, emotions, desires and volitions play no small part in their welfare and that of the society in which they live.