PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22256, 8 May 1934, Page 11

PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

ADDRESS BY THE MAYOR Last Thursday a pleasant evening was spent by the Dunedin Practical Psychology Club in Lake’s Restaurant, the guests of honour being the Mayor (the Rev E. T. Cox) and Mrs Cox. Mrs H. S. Tily presided. Mr Cox gave a very interesting address on “ Inferiority Complexes.” He mentioned that everyone had a complex, which followed the line of his particular bent, and he modified hia behaviour accordingly. A repressed complex was one in which a system of ideas was pushed down into the unconscious part of the mind. This was not always done consciously, but was pushed down because it was distasteful to the personality, and there, unfortunately, it produced morbid results.

The inferiority complex was a group of ideas in which the central one was a disbelief in the self, which resulted, as it were, in deterioration of one’s value to the community. There was a strong charge of helplessness in the person who disbelieved in himself. It might be that he disliked the company of others, that he had a fear of meeting strangers, and so forth. Public sympathy and help wore readily aroused towards one suffering from physical ill-health, whereas the man who was psychologically ill was usually avoided as being unpopular. He was the one who needed Understanding and help, as anything that militated against self-realisation was a hindrance to the well being of the community and the common wealth of the people. Further, the , harmonious functioning of every possibility within an individual was essential for his own wellbeing. _ The wish' for self-expression was innate and instinctive, and much depended upon believing in oneself. One’s achievements were, however, limited to some extent by personality, though the extent to which one’s natural gifts could be developed was not always realised. People have been entrusted with gifts that should be used as a contribution to the society of which they were a part. In many cases of suicide persons had ceased to believe in themselves, though perhaps only temporarily. It was possible to rob people of belief in themselves; and this could also be done in the case of little children before they had developed their possibilities of body, mind and soul. Anyone who did this was committing a crime against that child and against the community, by robbing that child of the greatest aid to character. , 7 ,

Mr Cox gave illustrations of. various inferiority complexes, showing, how they influenced conduct and detrimentally affected the personality. The weaknesses of childhood and the inferiority complexes developed as a result of these, should not be regarded as permanent hindrances to the full development of the personality. Striking illustrations of > the mastery of such complexes were given in the lives of such varied personages as Demosthenes, Theodore Roosevelt and Sandow. The first step towards correcting one’s disabilities was Self-knowledge. A person should review his past history, beginning with his earliest recollections, and find what had influenced him detrimentally. The discovery of the cause was a great help in mastering one’s difficulties.