PSYCHO-TECHNOLOGY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22329, 1 August 1934, Page 4

PSYCHO-TECHNOLOGY

INSTITUTE OPENED IN DUNEDIN At a gathering in the , Vedic Social Hall yesterday afternoon the British institute of Psycho-Teclinology was officially opened. Mr J. B. Waters presided over a fairly large attendance,, and after he had introduced the subject several of those present spoke briefly, congratulating the director (Mr MacGregor ■ Walms'ey) on his enterprise and expressing the opinion that the institute would fill a useful part in enabling parents to deal more sympathetically with the future of their children by. revealing character through an intensive, study of hand wxdtidr Waters said that although there were so many different schools of psychology the founders of the institute had tried to keep their feet on the ground by studying the most practical methods used in Europe and America. Their principal model has been the National. Institute of Industrial Psychology in London. Since it was founded by Dr Charles Samuel Myers at the end of the war, it had made an international reputation. Connected with it had been such famous names as the late Lord Balfour, Lord cl’Aberrion, and Lord Macmillan. Though Dr Myers was himself formerly in charge of the psychological laboratory at Cambridge University, some folk still got his name mixed with that of a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and asked if the National Institute did not investigate “spooks.’’ Far from dealing with spirits, it confined its study to human beings. And so would the offshoot in Dunedin.

Miss Margaret Mackenzie, Mr James Taylor, and Cr J. J. Marlow briefly congratulated Mr Walmsley, and expressed their admiration of the work that the insttiute proposed to do. In the course of their remarks the speakers mentioned the value of such a study of character as the institute was formed to give. In its analysis of the virtues and shortcomings of the human subjects treated, it would provide a splendid guide to a person’s capabilities, and in the case of delinquent and backward children would enable parents to gain a new insight into the best method of dealing with their children’s future.

Mr D. S. Mackenzie gave an example of how a character sketch was provided by the institute, and Mr E. H. Simpson told how, in cases which had come within his own experience, the results of the institute’s work had been remarkably accurate. No effort, he said, was made to flatter the person whoso character was being studied, and the unvarnished truth was told in each instance.

At the conclusion of the addresses a short musical programme was provided, and those who wished to do so were taken on a tour of inspection of the institute rooms in the Capitol Building, where the use of the various apparatus was explained. S