PSYCHOLOGY OF “FIXED IDEAS.”

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19125, 9 December 1933, Page 7

PSYCHOLOGY OF “FIXED IDEAS.”

(To the Editor.) Sir, —In his justifiable and dignified rebuke of Mr R. E. Hansen your correspondent Mr Marcus James indicates the difficulty of reasoning with Individuals who are obsessed with one “fixed idea”; and If these persons with one fixed idea are entirely lacking in a sense of humour —as was the' late President Wilson —then in most serious discussions they become absolutely hopeless. In an able and most interesting pamphlet entitled “Principles of Economic Reconstruction” 'Mr T. A. Wright, of the Melbourne University, deals effectively with "the psychology of fixed ideas.” On page 29 he says: “ ‘Fixity of idea’ is the state where a line of thought remains so entrenched in the workings of one portion of the brain that it is with difficulty blended, moulded or dislocated by any other thought or line of reasoning—l.c., the functioning of the electrical brain mechanism is not. sufficiently labile, or flexible, to permit of its ability to discuss and analyse altered circumstances or facts.”

This statement embodies a simple yet very popular 1 ruHi. Any individual who allows “unreasoning adherence to a creed or view” to get possession of “one portion of the brain,” by virtue of that fact stultifies I lie other portions of ills brain, and—lo use a common phrase—makes himself a dashed nuisance in general discussions.

Mr Wright’s pamphlet supporter) tiie Douglas Social Credit theory, and when lie wrote Hie words quoted he doubtless intended them specifically as Hie basis of an argument against those who seem incapable of appreciating reasoned arguments against our present social system; but. the fact which he so effectively submitted as lo Hie unsatisfactory results of “fixity of ideas” lias just the same implication whether it is applied lo 11 1 oso who refuse lo accept Douglas Social Credit as a theoery of world salvation, or lo those who have become “so llxed” in their belief Hint il is Hie only salvation that they have narcotised the other portions of their brain, and so “dislocate any other thought or line of reasoning.” An amusing illustration of “fixity of idea” plus an entire lack of the sense of humour is recorded by -Mr

W. M. Hughes, then Premier of Australia. At tho conference after the war. Mr Hughes was demanding that Australia should he granted a full mandate over New Guinea. Mi Wilson, with his “fixed idea” of democratio principles, gravely insisted that he would not agree to this demand until a plebiscite of the inhabitants had been taken as to whether they desired to lie governed from Australia. Mr Hughes said that he could not restrain ills mirLh at the notion of a plebiscite of people whose principal industry was cannibalism. I submit, Sir, that the clear statement of Mr Wright on 'llie Psychology of ‘Fixed Ideas’ ” is worth careful consideration by all who desiie to give publicity to their views. 1 am, etc., JOHN SYKES. Hamilton, December 9, 1933.