NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23152, 26 September 1938, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

DEFECTS OF PROPAGANDA The theory of the propagandist is that "what I tell yon seven times is true," but insistence on truth can become painfully" tedious, says the Glasgow Herald. The human capacity for enthusiasm is limited, except in fana- | tics, and one cannot make a, whole | nation fanatic. It is the supreme defect of propaganda that it admits no tolerance. It recognises black and white, but not grey. It will not allow its enemies any virtues or admit imperfections of its own. It is always right. There is a saying that the noisy man is always right. It is a dubious proposition. It would be truer to say that the propagandist is always noisy, right or wrong. And in a world much of which loves quiet better than it does dogma it is not very surprising that the victim of the propagandist seeks escape in sleep. STUDY OF THINGS ENGLISH "I have been struck in recent years by the desire shown for a knowledge of the English language and for things English in all parts of the world," said Lord Lloyd, chairman of the British Council, in a recent address. "There are in London 011 any night of the week some 5000 foreign students, and there are at least 2000 more in the provinces. In addition, there are at least 3500 Dominion students in the English universities. Theso students come hero because they want to learn English and about the English mode of thought, habit and literature, and the number of students who desire to come to England every year is expanding at a phenomenal rate. I like to think that it is not so much because of the English language that this movement is taking place, but that :t is very largely too because of the beauty of the things conveyed by the English language—freedom, art, literature and music." THE NEW INTOLERANCE "Discussion is a good thing, because it loads to an understanding of the other man's point of view, and you respect his bo'na-fides," said Mr. A. D. Lindsay, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and Master of Balliol, in a recent address. "This refusal to discuss things, which really assumes that the other side is damned, is a very real exemplification of the growing ecclesiasticism of current politics. People must have something to believe in. In the late nineteenth century I think it is true to say that the great mass of the people were united in one belief—their belief in God. R Io-day the great mass of the people haven't got that belief. They have transferred their faith and enthusiasm to something else —to themselves, their little organisation or their nation. Once we all do this we are done for. When we put our belief into out particular little movement we shall just fight among ourselves until some efficient, ruthless and clever fellow comes along to rescue 11s from that and give us a new form of dictatorship." SOUL, MIND AND BODY

" Fitness is more than a matter of thews and sinews," said Mr. Horace Pearson, headmaster of College, England, in his annual report at the speech day. The healthy mind, he added, had a- good deal to do with the healthy body. Unless minds developed along with bodies, the result was rather lopsided, and tho modern world had not much use for bodies without brains. The true aim of education was an all-round development, intellectual as well as physical, and if tho goal of ambition was an all-round development of tiio human stock they must not forget that man possessed a soul as well as a body and mind. This was a side of the physical fitness campaign he should like to see stressed. Men had many ways of seeking and securing happiness, but of them all religion was the surest and most effective. It was the aim of a school like Tettenhall College to train a race of men strong enough to withstand the temptations of modern life and wise enough to deal with its problems. He believed that could only bo done if discipline of mind and soul was an element in their efforts. MENTAL HEALTH IN RELIGION

Tho opinion of Professor Jung, that for many persons a sound personal attitude toward the eternal is essential for mental health, has not hitherto found many supporters among the leading psychotherapists, says tho Lancet. Many practising in Britain have shown | that they regard religion as a sidetrack in analysis; tho view has even been freely expressed that, until tho patient's religious experience has been analysed away, ho is not completely cured. On the Continent formulated theories, as distinct from clinical practice, havo largely left religion jput of account. But at the International Medical Congress for Psychotherapy, held at Oxford, it emerged that tho outlook is changing and that more and moro of those whoso life -work is tho attempt to adjust mental and emotional disturbances aro coming back to the idea that religious consciousness is indispensable to a large number of patients, especially' in later life. The task of tho psychotherapist is to a large extent that of an intermediary, an interpreter of an experience in which the patient adjusts himself to tho claims of something within himself, quite distinct from his own ego, that leads him to appreciate the real values behind social and natural laws. As he proceeds with this adjustment his individuality grows outside tho narrow bounds of the self into a creative relationship with the whole of life. Dr. William Brown, who has long been an exponent of this view, said bluntly that the medical psychologist could no longer do without philosophy. Dr. H. Nengarton showed how (he analyst can lieh) a patient to reorientate himself by a new appreciation of collective values, and to free himself from the primitive religious forms with which ho finds himself in contact after tho spontaneous experience of "rebirth." Both the analytic and tho religious experiences, ho said, deal with a widening of consciousness and meet in tho recognition of an inner law of living. Professor Jung said it was an insanity of the whito man that lie had lost the religious order of life. Until ho found it again he would scarcely, be healed of his troubles, and it was for the psychotherapists, in collaboration with religious people of every calling, to help hi 111 to do so. |