PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26198, 8 July 1946, Page 7

PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY

At the Dunedin Practical Psychology Club’s monthly social Miss Olive Mercer delivered ar. address on “ The History of Psychology.” ■ Psychology, the speaker said, was an ancient science, for it had a long history behind it, stretching back almost to the beginnings of philosophical thought. Psychology, as a part of philosophy; began in a tangle of speculation about the nature of the world, and a great deal of guesswork about the nature of man. Plato was first to formulate a clear cut distinction between mind and matter. He was impressed by the difference between " ideas ” which were revealed by reason and " things ” which were revealed by the senses. He regarded “ ideas ” as more real than “ things.” He identified the mind with the good and the beautiful, while matter was something to be struggled against and subdued. The rise of modern science had produced a different conception of this subject, as matter lent itself to the ways of science, but tile mind remained intractable. Rousseau had struck out on a radically different line of thought, she said. His contribution to psychology was his insistence on the role of feeling and emotion in the human make-up. It was evident to nim that man’s true nature was his emotional nature. The notion that man was a creature of ideas and reason Rousseau denied as false. Though emotion was to remain for a long time a dark and little explored field, it was Rousseau who first insisted on its importance.

William James was one of the first psychologists to realise the importance of the abnormal phenomena of mind, and the lessons to be learned from them, the speaker said. William McDougall had advocated a theory of instinct, which immediately commanded attention. The true contribution to Freud to psychology was the discovery of the dynamic power of the unconscious mind.

There could be no doubt' that psychology was an important branch of knowledge. Miss Mercer added, that it was growing rapidly, and that it was destined to exert a profound influence on the future of our race.

Miss H. Anderson and-Mr M. Thomson thanked Miss Mercer for her address