EXPLORING THE MIND

Southland Times, Issue 23408, 15 January 1938, Page 12

EXPLORING THE MIND

Theory And Experiment In “Depth Psychology”

THE PSYCHOLOGIST AT WORK. AN INTRODUCTION TO EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. By M. R. Harrower. Kegan Paul; Trench, Trubner and Company, London. Price 5/- net. A GENERAL SELECTION FROM THE WORKS OF SIGMUND FREUD. Edited by John Rickman. The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, London. Price 5/- net.

Dr Harrower begins an exposition of the scope and methods of experimental psychology by pointing out the damage that has been done to the youngest of the sciences by popular usage. “Just because human beings are known to be in some way its subject matter, anyone and everyone fells that he has the right to use the term to describe his observations of himself and of his neighbours. The very fact that the word (psychology) is used so indiscriminately in and of itself weakens its academic or scientific status.” She goes on to insist that psychology lays no claim to being “a simplified rule of thumb, ensuring more satisfactory lives to those who study it.” This statement is made on page two, which means that at the very beginning of the book the reader feels a sudden confidence in his guide. So much nonsense has been written about psychology that the cautious reader must give close attention to the academic standing and qualification of every new author, lest he find himself entrapped in writings that seem to go in one leap from a superficial view of the mind to a metaphysical thesis which ignores all laws of scientific inquiry, and depends on mystic impulse. Dr Harrower briefly examines the current schools of psychological theory, and after dismissing both mechanism and vitalism as inadequate frameworks for an explanation of human behaviour suggests that if an alternative is found for the common element in these two theories it might be possible “to break new and promising ground.” If we accept the truth that there is a prevalence of the machine-like type of orderly happenings in our everyday world, we should also be willing to admit that this is not the only type of order in nature. “To achieve certain calculated ends for man’s particular and specific purposes, undoubtedly this sort of orderly functioning is essential, but it is by no means the inevitable characteristic of physical nature everywhere in the universe that it cannot achieve order except through the channels of machine-like constraints.” This is a broad base for psychological inquiry; and once the reader has grasped Dr Harrower’s attitude her approach to laboratory experiments becomes extremely interesting. Visual and aural experiments which in themselves could seem trivial or tedious become important when they are placed in relation to this background of theory.

It is difficult to read the chapter on colour and sound, for instance, without wanting to go back to Bishop Berkley with a sudden new interest in subjective idealism; and an acquaintance with memory tests which show the mental accretions taken into a simple image in its passage through successive minds seems to encourage a deeper understanding of creative experience. Work of this kind gives strong support to the claims of those who believe that psychology is entitled to a status of its own in science. To a certain extent it must remain dependent on nhvsioloey. and under the deep

shadow of philosophy. But if it takes something from both, it also has gifts of its own, and in patient experiment can carry out a function which has been ignored by scientists and philosophers alike. Dr Harrower has written a book which should entice many readers to a wider study of its problems. Her firm hold on reality and a gift for clear exposition are perhaps the best features of a work that is reasoned, authoritative, and admirably balanced. FREUD’S THEORIES The value of a selection from the works of Sigmund Freud must depend on the degree to which the reader can accept the validity of psycho-analysis. In this latest selection by Dr Rickman, which aims at epitomizing the general theory of psycho-analysis, there are no case histories and therefore no real evidence for Freud’s generalizations. This was inevitable; on no other terms could a selection of any thoroughness be placed within a book of 329 pages. The effect on the general reader will therefore vary in accordance with individual presuppositions. A confirmed believer in psycho-analysis will welcome the compactness and accessibility of theories to which he subscribes without hesitation. And the sceptic, resenting the continued restatement of the “libido” theme, and an insistence on a view of mental topography which he considers incomplete and irrational, will find himself in a constant state of resistance.

Whatever one’s personal beliefs, however, there is a fascination in the subject matter which cannot fail to carry an inquiring reader to the last page. The theory of the unconscious as outlined by Freud is unintelligible except in strict relationship to psychoanalysis; but there is interest in discovering it as the background of neurotic phenomena. And “narcissism,” “the ego and the id,” “the pleasure principle” are all terms which lead one on, almost involuntarily, to strange regions of the mind. The section on group psychology comes nearest to general interest, and is of special importance in an age which struggles to adjust itself to the pressure of numbers. But perhaps the most important feature about this book is the way the selection has been arranged to show the development of Freud’s theories. From this viewpoint alone it is an important contribution to the literature of “depth psychology?’