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    "source_key": "britannica_1926",
    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1926)",
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    "chunk_id": "1926:psychical research:3714e8c4be81",
    "title": "PSYCHICAL RESEARCH",
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    "verified_text": "the increase of inter- est in psychical research all over the civilised world was signal- ised by the institution of international congresses, the first of which, attended by representatives of 12 countries, was held at copenhagen in 1921, while 17 countries were represented at the warsaw congress in 1923. at these congresses the curious fact emerged that interest on the continent was mainly concentrated on physical, in the united kingdom and america on mental or psychological phenomena. telekinesis and teleplasmy—pdhysical phenomena can be grouped under two main heads: eelekinesis, or the movement of objects at a distance otherwise than by ordinary physical means; and tcleplasmy, or the extrusion from the body of the medium of a substance, sometimes amorphous, sometimes resembling por- tions of the human body or even complete figures. phenomena of both these kinds have long been familiar, but it was only as the result of the investigations of j. ochorowitz (aniales des sciences psychiques, from 1909 on) that the connection between the two was observed, and those who accept the reality of the phenomena believe that teleplasm is the mechanism behind telekinesis. among the more famous “ physical ’”? mediums may be mentioned stanislava t, stanislava p, guzik, kluski, franc- zek (all from poland), frau silbert, willy and rudi schneider, eva c., kathleen goligher and mrs. crandon. numerous sci- entific men of high standing investigated them and declared their conviction of the reality of the phenomena, but without so far obtaining general acceptance for their view either in the sci- entific world or among the public. conditions of research—the unbeliever argues (1) that the conditions usually demanded by mediums (e.g., dim light, refusal to permit the teleplasm to be handled or portions detached) facilitate deception; (2) that few investigators, however eminent otherwise, are skilled in the technique of detecting fraud, and (3) that, even so, practically all the well-known mediums have sooner or later been detected simulating phenomena, or at least have come under grave suspicion. all this the candid psychic researcher will admit, but he will join issue when the further claim is made that this disposes of the whole question: he will point to the investigations by the society for psychical research of eva c. and willy schneider (to name only two that have taken place in this country) as evidence that, under rigorous control exercised by investigators with full knowledge of fraudulent methods, results can be obtained which, if not absolutely dem- onstrating the reality of telekinesis and teleplasm, at any rate make out a very strong case for further inquiry. the subject will not, however, obtain the serious consideration it deserves until an agreement be reached by all researchers (1) not to publish any report on a medium until he or she has been investigated by a committee of experts in detecting fraud, who report that they have witnessed phenomena prima fucie genuine; (2) not to publish any report which does not set out in full detail all material facts as to persons present, methods of control, pre- cautions to prevent fraud, measures to ascertain whether fraud in fact occurred, etc. the voluminous literature on the subject would be considerably reduced if all reports falling short of the latter standard were eliminated. until the phenomena are better authenticated it would be idle to refer at lengths to theoretic explanations of their origin. the continental observers generally reject the hypothesis of spirit action, and believe that the teleplasm is moulded in accord- ance with the subconscious ideas of the medium, and possibly the sitters. psychic photography is the one form of physical mediumship which has “ caught on” in great britain; but, as professor richet, a not unduly sceptical critic of physical phenomena, remarks, ‘despite many attempts nothing reliable has been proved.” 252 in addition to the physical phenomena produced by regular mediums there are the curious cases, reported from time to lime in the press, of mysterious noises, breakages of furniture, etc., in houses. such poltergeist cases, as they are called, are particu- larly baffling, mainly because the enterprising journalist usually arrives on the scene before the trained researcher, and makes all serious investigations impossible. in most instances there will be found amongst the occupants of the house some person in a state of mental or nervous instability, often a child at the age of puberty, with whose removal the manifestations cease. trickery, not. necessarily deliberate or even conscious, but often very skil- ful, explains many of the cases, but it is not clear that it covers them all. where there is trickery, the motive may be merely love of mischief or a desire for notoriety, and the apparent psychologi- cal affinity between the principal actors in poltergeist cases and regular physical mediums must be borne in mind when consider- ing the question of deception, whether conscious or unconscious, on the part of regular mediums, especially when no normal motive for fraud can be traced. mental and physical phenomena.—before passing from physi- cal to mental phenomena it may be useful to consider what, if any, connection there is between them, beyond the historical one. in the early days of the spiritualist movement, down to the time of home and stainton moses, the association was close. the same mediums produced both classes of phenomena, and both were attributed to spirit agency by those who accepted them. as, however, investigations became more scientific, a division developed: so far as concerns reasonably well-authen- ticated phenomena, the physical mediums came to form one group, the mental mediums another, and the temperamental differences between typical mediums of the two groups are strik- ing. were it not that both classes of phenomena appear to re- quire for their production either trance or some less complete form of dissociation on the medium’s part, there would seem to be no reason why they should continue to be treated as both subjects for the same branch of research. mental phenomena.—telepathy has probably gained wider acceptance than any other hypothesis connected with psychical research, and both in its spontaneous and experimental mani- festations continues to be extensively studied. the most notable experiments in recent years are professor gilbert murray’s two series (s.p.r. proc., vol. 29 (1918) and 34 (1924) and dr. coover’s experiments at the leland stanford junior university, california (1917). inthe gilbert murray experiments attempts were made to transmit complicated ideas or conceptions, e.g., of pictures, scenery, incidents from literature, imaginary and often fantastic occurrences, and a proportion of successes was obtained very largely exceeding what can reasonably be attributed to chance. in dr. coover’s experiments with 1oo students from his univer- sity it was sought to transmit the correct denomination of play- ing cards, and, taking all the students together, the successes only slightly exceeded the proportion attributable to chance; individual students, however, had results much above the aver- age. the apparent discrepancy between the results of these two groups of experiments can be reconciled if the natural inference is drawn that subjects which arouse the interest or curiosity of | the experimenters are more easily transmitted than mere num- bers or pips on a card, and that subconscious boredom was at the bottom of the failure of the californian students. the gilbert murray experiments cannot be considered ab- solutely conclusive evidence of telepathy, as the conditions did not exclude the possibility of auditory hyperaesthesia, 7.¢., of professor murray having, subconsciously of course, overheard the agents discussing the subject to be transmitted. the records, however, especially of the later experiments, contain a good deal of evidence tending to negative this hypothesis, and it is to be noted that the experiments of miss miles and miss ramsden (s.p.r. proc. vol. 21, 1907-9) were not prejudicially affected by the distances {in some cases hundreds of miles) separating agent and percipient. spontancous telepathy.—as regards spontaneous telepathy, evidence of the kind so carefully collected and discussed in psychical research phantasms of the living continues to accumulate. in s.p.r. proc., vol. 33 (1923), a large number of cases reported to the s.p.r., including several very striking instances of apparitions closely corresponding with the death at a distance of the pre- sumed “ agent,” are collected and classified by mrs. sidgwick, whose article on “‘ hindrances and complications in telepathic communication ”’ (s.p.r. proc., vol. 34, 1924) also deserves careful study. the combined evidence, experimental and spontaneous, although falling short of strict scientific demon- stration of telepathy, raises the hypothesis to a very high level of probability. clairvoyance, or the supposed supernormal knowledge of matters not (as in telepathy) derived from another mind, is not so well attested, but there is a growing body of evidence in its support. reference should be made to the experiments with ossowiecki in reading the contents of sealed envelopes (geley’s lectoplasmic et la clairvoyance, 1924) and the investigations of the “ psychometric ” powers of a mexican lady by dr. pagen- stecher and dr. walter prince (american s.p.r. proc. vol. 15 and 16). in this connection mention must also be made of the ‘‘ book-tests ’’ received through trance-mediums. the sitter is informed that a particular portion of a specified page in a book, identified by its position in a bookcase in a house where the medium has never been, will be found to contain a message to a particular effect: in the instances reported to the s.p.r. the number of successes largely exceeded chance probability (see s.p.r. proc., vol. 32 and 33, 19218 and 1923). book-tests gen- erally purport to be given by discarnate intelligences, and the subject matter of the messages, which is often appropriate to the supposed communicator, suggests at least some survival of memory. in addition to the references already given, see r. warcollier, la telepathie (1921); r. tischner, uber hellsehen und telepathie (1921); c. bruck, expertmentelle telepathie (1925). evidences of survival as the results of bereavements caused by the war the number of persons consulting trance-mediums has enormously increased. of the communications received at sittings a great part consists cither of vague generalities or descriptions of a future life which, whether true or not, have no evidential value. but facts are frequently communicated which cannot reasonably be attributed to the medium’s normal knowledge, and the question arises whether such facts are derived, as they purport to be, from some discarnate mind, or whether they can be explained as telepathic impressions received subconsciously by the medium from some living mind. the problem is a difficult one, as, assuming telep- athy occurs, we are ignorant of the exact limits of its action: a very able attempt to clucidate this problem was contributed by dr. walter prince to the copenhagen congtess. (see comple rendu of that congress.) further evidence shows that telepathy plays an important part in communications ostensibly coming from the dead. thus a sitter received from a medium in the form of spirit-communi- cations {1) details consciously imagined by himself regarding an entirely fictitious person and (2) statements concerning an acquaintance believed by him to have been killed in the war, accurate in every point except that the friend was in fact alive. some of the statements referred to events recurring after the war, and some to things which happened, curiously enough, after the date of the sitting (s.p.r. prec., vol. 35, 1925). if, then, a medium can, not only in theory but in fact, collect information from the mind both of the sitter and of a person only connected in a remote way with either medium or sitter, the difficulties in the way of establishing survival by information conveyed in trance seem insuperable. where, however, as often happens, especially in ‘‘ direct con- trol,” something more than mere information is conveyed, where, for instance, the turns of speech and the habits of mind of the ostensible communicator are reproduced in a lifelike man- ner, those who reject the spiritistic hypothesis have to assume, in addition to telepathy, a strong, perhaps an improbably strong, power of subconscious dramatisation on the medium’s part. psychoanalysis: freudian school brbliography.—sir oliver lodge, raymond (1916); papers by mrs. sidgwick, miss radclyffe-hall, una, lady troubridge and ae in s. p. r. proe., vol. 28 (1915), 30 (1920), 32 (1922), 35 1925). conscious design that telepathy impaired the evidence of survival derived from trance-communications was recognised by myers and the other founders of the society for psychical research, and it is of inter- est that evidence of a kind not readily explicable by telepathy first began to appear shortly after myers’ death, and ostensibly on his inspiration, in the form of “ cross-correspondences ”’ in automatic writing. it was found that several automatists, writ- ing without knowledge of each other’s scripts, would cach pro- duce fragmentary allusions to some topic. taken separately the scripts meant little, but when compared the fragments fitted together to form a complex whole. there seemed a substratum of conscious design, not originating with any single automatist, or, as far as could be ascertained or imagined, with any other living mind, and accordingly supporting the claim, frequently made in the scripts, that they originated in a particular discar- nate mind or group of minds (s.p.r. proc., vol. 20, 1906, et seg.) in one instance, however (the “ sevens” case, s.p.r, proc. vol. 25, 1911), the mind of a living person seems to some extent at least to have influenced the scripts. further evidence of design is afforded by the literary puzzles contained in automatic scripts of which the “ ear of dionysius ” is the most remarkable (see mr. gerald balfour’s paper, s.p.r. proc., vol. 29, 1918). in this case the automatic writings of a lady with little classical knowledge set out piecemeal and very allusively the story of the obscure greek poet philoxenus. prob- ably the majority of those who have taken honours in the classi- cal tripos or “‘ mods ”’ could not give the full story as recounted in the scripts; in fact, it is only to be found in one english book, a book never seen by the automatist, but known to have been possessed and used by the distinguished classical scholar, then dead, from whom the scripts purported to come. these cross-correspondences and literary puzzles are difficult reading, a tangle of recondite literary allusions, but no student of the literature of survival should be deterred thereby from giv- ing them careful consideration. if they have been correctly interpreted, they suggest the survival of a mind capable of origi- nating and carrying out an elaborate plan, something more than the persistence of a psychic factor, which dr. c. d. broad is willing to concede (see the mind and its place in nature, 1925). bibl1ograpity.—general. particular volumes of the proc. soc. psy. res. and american proc. soc. psy. res. have been quoted but the whole series is important. on the continent zeitschrift fir parapsychologie and zeit f. kritischen okkultesmus ably represent the two main schools of thought. see also e. osty, la connaissance supra-normale (1923); c. richet, tratte de metapsychique (1923); m. dessoir, der okkultismus in urkunden, part 2 (1925); h.driesch, the crists in psychology (1925). f. schrenck-notzing, materializations-phaenomene (1914); physi- ralische phaenomene des medinmismus (1920); w. j. crawford, the psychic structures at the goligher circle (1921); ‘‘ reports on eva c., willy schneider, etc.,” proc. soc. psy. res., vol. 32 (1922) and 35 (1925); g. geley, l'’ectoplasmie et la clairvoyance (1924); m. dessoir der okkultismus in urkunden (1925). (w. hh. s.) psychoanalysis: freudian school.—in the years 1880-2 a viennese physician, dr. josef breuer (1842-1925), dis- covered a new procedure by means of which he relieved a girl, who was suffering from severe hysteria, of her various symptoms. the idea occurred to him that the symptoms were connected with impressions which she had received during a period of ex- citement while she was nursing her sick father. he therefore induced her, while she was in a state of hypnotic somnambulism, to search for these connections in her memory and to live through the ‘‘ pathogenic ” scenes once again without inhibiting the affects that arose in the process. he found that when she had done this the symptom in question disappeared for good. this was at a date before the investigations of charcot and pierre janet into the origin of hysterical symptoms, and breuer’s discovery was thus entirely uninfluenced by them. but he did 253 not pursuc the matter any further at the time, and it was not until some 10 years later that he took it up again in collaboration with sigmund freud. in 1895 they published a book, studien tiber hysteric, in which breuer’s discoveries were described and an attempt was made to explain them by the theory of catharsis. according to that hypothesis, hysterical symptoms originate through the energy of a mental process being withheld from conscious influence and being diverted into bodily innervation ( conversion’). a hysterical symptom would thus be a sub- stitute for an omitted mental act and a reminiscence of the occa- sion which should have given rise to that act. and. on this view, recovery would be a result of the liberation of the affect that had gone astray and of its discharge along a normal path (‘‘abre- | action”), cathartic treatment gave excellent therapeutic re- sults, but it was found that they were not permanent and that they were dependent on the personal relation bet ween the patient and the physician. freud, who later proceeded with these in- vestigations by himself, made an alteration in their technique, by replacing hypnosis by the method of free association. he invented the term “ psychoanalysis,’ which in the course of time came to have two meanings: (1) a particular method of treating nervous disorders and (2) the science of unconscious mental processes, which has also been appropriately described as ‘* depth-psychology.”’ subject matter of psychoanalysis.—psychoanalysis finds a constantly increasing amount of support as a therapcutic pro- cedure, owing to the fact that it can do more for certain classes of patients than any other method of treatment. the principal field of its application is in the milder neuroses—hysteria, pho- bias and obsessional states, but in malformations of character and in sexual inhibitions or abnormalities it can also bring about marked improvements or even recoveries. its influence upon dementia praecox and paranoia is doubtful; on the other hand, infavourable circumstances it can cope with depressive states, even if they are of a severe type. in every instance the treatment makes heavy claims upon both the physician and the patient: the former requires a special training, and must devote a long period of time to exploring the mind of each patient, while the latter must make considerable sacrifices, both material and mental. nevertheless, all the trouble involved is as a rule rewarded by the results. psychoanalysis does not act as a convenient panacea (‘‘cito, tute, jucunde’’) upon all psychological disorders. on the contrary, its applica- tion has been instrumental in making clear for the first time the difficulties and limitations in the treatment of such affections. the therapeutic results of psychoanalysis depend upon the replacement of unconscious mental acts by conscious ones and are operative in so far as that process has significance in relation to the disorder under treatment. the replacement is effected by overcoming internal resistances in the patient’s mind. the future will probably attribute far greater importance to psycho- analysis as the science of the unconscious than as a therapeutic procedure. de pth-psychology.—psychoanalysis, in its character of depth- psychology, considers mental life from three points of view: the dynamic, the economic and the topographical. from the first of these standpoints, the dyrzamic one, psycho- analysis derives all mental processes (apart from the reception of external stimuli) from the interplay of forces, which assist or inhibit one another, combine with one another, enter into com- promises with one another, etc. all of these forces are originally in the nature of instincts; that is to say, they have an organic origin. they are characterised by possessing an immense (so- matic) persistence and reserve of power (“‘repetition-compul- sion’); and they are represented mentally as images or ideas with an affective charge (“ cathexis ’). in psychoanalysis, no less than in other sciences, the theory of instincts is an obscure subject. an empirical analysis leads to the formation of two groups of instincts: the so-called ‘ ego-instincts,’’ which are directed towards self-preservation and the ‘ object-instincts,” which are concerned with relations to an external object. the social instincts are not regarded as elementary or irreducible. 254 psychoanalysis: theoretical speculation leads to the suspicion that there are two fundamental instincts which lie concealed behind the mani- fest ego-instincts and object-instincts: namely (a) eros, the instinct which strives for ever closer union, and (8) the instinct of destruction, which leads toward the dissolution of what is living. in psychoanalysis the manifestation of the force of eros is given the name “‘ /ibido.”’ pleasure-pain principle—from the economic standpoint psychoanalysis supposes that the mental representations of the instincts have a cathexis of definite quantities of energy, and that it is the purpose of the mental apparatus to hinder any dam- ming-up of these energies and to keep as low as possible the total amount of the excitations to which it is subject. the course of mental processes is automatically regulated by the “‘ pleastre- puin principle ’’; and pain is thus in some way related to an in- crease of excitation and pleasure to a decrease. in the course of development the original pleasure principle undergoes a modifi- cation with reference to the external world, giving place to the “‘veality-principle,’? whereby the mental apparatus learns to post- pone the pleasure of satisfaction and to tolerate temporarily feelings of pain. mental topography.—topographically, psychoanalysis re- gards the mental apparatus as a composite instrument, and endeavours to determine at what points in it the various mental processes take place. according to the most recent psycho- analytic views, the mental apparatus is composed of an “ 7d,” which is the reservoir of the instinctive impulses, of an “ego,” which is the most superficial portion of the id and one which is modified by the influence of the external world, and of a “ saper- ego,” which develops out of the id, dominates the ego and repre- sents the inhibitions of instinct characteristic of man. further, the property of consciousness has a topographical reference; for processes in the id are entirely unconscious, while consciousness is the function of the ego’s outermost layer, which is concerned with the perception of the external world. at this point two observations may be in place. it must not be supposed that these very general ideas are presuppositions upon which the work of psychoanalysis depends. on the con- trary, they are its latest conclusions and are in every respect open to revision. psychoanalysis is founded securely upon the obser- vation of the facts of mental life; and for that very reason its theoretical superstructure is still incomplete and subject to con- stant alteration. secondly, there is no reason for astonishment that psychoanalysis, which was originally no more than an attempt at explaining pathological mental phenomena, should have developed into a psychology of normal mental life. the justification for this arose with the discovery that the dreams and mistakes (‘‘ parapraxes,” such as slips of the tongue, etc.) of normal men have the same mechanism as neurotic symptoms. theoretical basis —the first task of psychoanalysis was the elucidation of nervous disorders. the analytical theory of the neuroses is based upon three ground-pillars: the recognition of (1) “repression,” of (2) the importance of the sexual instincts and of (3) “ transference.” censorship.—there is a force in the mind which exercises the functions of a censorship, and which excludes from consciousness and from any influence upon action all tendencies which dis- please it. such tendencies are described as “ repressed.” they remain unconscious; and if the physician attempts to bring them into the patient’s consciousness he provokes a “ resistance.” these repressed instinctual impulses, however, are not always made powerless by this process. in many cases they succeed in making their influence felt by circuitous paths, and the indirect or substitutive gratification of repressed impulses is what con- stitutes neurotic symptoms. sexual instincts —for cultural reasons the most intensive repression falls upon the sexual instincts; but it is precisely in connection with them that repression most easily miscarries, so that neurotic symptoms are found to be substitutive gratifica- tions of repressed sexuality. the belief that in man sexual life begins only at puberty is incorrect. on the contrary, signs of it can be detected from the beginning of extra-uterine existence; it freudian school reaches a first culminating point at or before the fifth year (“early period’), after which it is inhibited or interrupted (“latency period’’) until the age of puberty, which is the second climax of its development. this double onset of sexual develop- ment seems to be distinctive of the genus homo. all experiences during the first period of childhood are of the greatest importance to the individual, and in combination with his inherited sexual constitution, form the dispositions for the subsequent deveclop- ment of character or disease. it isa mistaken belief that sexuality coincides with “genitality.”” the sexual instincts pass through a complicated course of development, and it is only at the end of it that the “‘ primacy of the genital zone ” is attained. before this there are a number of “ pre-genital organisations ” of the libido—points at which it may become “ fixated ” and to which, in the event of subsequent repression, it will return (‘‘ regres- sion’), the infantile fixations of the libido are what determine the form of neurosis which sets in later. thus the neuroses are to be regarded as inhibitions in the development of the libiclo. the oedipus complex.—there are no specific causes of nerv- ous disorders; the question whether a conflict finds a healthy solution or leads to a neurotic inhibition of function depends upon quantitative considerations, that is, upon the relative strength of the forces concerned. the most important conflict with which a small child is faced is his relation te his parents, the ‘‘ oedipus complex ’’; it is in attempting to grapple with this problem that persons destined to suffer from a neurosis habitu- ally fail. the reactions against the instinctual demands of the oedipus complex are the source of the most precious and socially important achievements of the human mind; and this probably holds true not only in the life of individuals but also in the history of the human species as a whole. the super-ego, the moral factor which dominates the ego, also has its origin in the process of overcoming the oedipus complex. | transference.—by “ transference ”’ is meant a striking peculiar- ity of neurotics. they develop toward their physician emotional relations, both of an affectionate and hostile character, which are not based upon the actual situation but are derived from their relations toward their parents (the oedipus complex). trans- ference is a proof of the fact that adults have not overcome their former childish dependence; it coincides with the force which has been named “ suggestion’; and it is only by learning to make use of it that the physician is enabled to induce the patient to overcome his internal resistances and do away with his repres- sions. thus psychoanalytic treatment acts as a second educa- tion of the adult, as a corrective to his education as a child. within this narrow compass it has not been possible to men- tion many matters of the greatest interest, such as the “ subli- mition ” of instincts, the part played by symbolism, the problem of “ ambivalence,” etc. nor has there been space to allude to the applications of psychoanalysis, which originated, as we have seen, in the sphere of medicine, to other departments of knowl- edge (such as anthropology, the study of religion, literary history and education) where its influence is constantly in- creasing. it is enough to say that psychoanalysis, in its char- acter of the psychology of the deepest, unconscious mental acts, promises to become the link between psychiatry and all of these other fields of study. the psychoanalytic movement—the beginnings of psycho- analysis may be marked by two dates: 1895, which saw the pub- lication of breuer and freud’s studien tiber hysterie, and 1900, which saw that of freud’s traumdeutung. at first the new dis- coveries aroused no interest either in the medical profession or among the general public. in 1907 the swiss psychiatrists, under the leadership of e. bleuler and c. g. jung, began to concern themselves in the subject; and in 1908 there took place at salz- burg a first meeting of adherents from a number of different coun- tries. in 1909 freud and jung were invited to america by g. stanley hall to deliver a series of lectures on psychoanalysis at clark university, worcester, mass. from that time forward in- terest in europe grew rapidly; it showed itself, however, in a forcible rejection of the new teachings, characterised by an emo- tional colouring which sometimes bordered upon the unscientific. psychology the reasons for this hostility are to be found, from the medical point of view, in the fact that psychoanalysis lays stress upon psychical factors, and from the philosophical point of view, in its assuming as an underlying postulate the concept of unconscious mental activity; but the strongest reason was undoubtedly the general disinclination of mankind to concede to the factor of sex- uality such importance as is assigned to it by psychoanalysis. in spite of this widespread opposition, however, the movement in favour of psychoanalysis was not to be checked. its adherents formed themselves into an international association, which passed successfully through the ordeal of the world war, and at the present time comprises local groups in vienna, berlin, buda- pest, london, switzerland, holland, moscow and calcutta, as well as two in the united states. there are three journals repre- senting the views of these societies: the znternationaule zeitschrift fiir psychoanalyse, imago (which is concerned with the appli- cation of psychoanalysis to non-medical fields of knowledge), and the international journal of psycho-analysis. during the years 1911-3 two former adherents, alfred adler, of vienna, and c. g. jung, of ziirich, seceded from the psycho- analytic movement and founded schools of thought of their own. in 1921 dr. m.eitingon founded in berlin the first public psycho- analytic clinic and training-school, and this was soon followed by a second in vienna. for the moment these are the only in- stitutions on the continent of europe which make psychoanalytic treatment accessible to the wage-earning classes. bibliography.—breuer and freud, studien tiber i ysterie (1895); freud, 7raumdeutung (1900); zur psychopathologie des alltagslebens (1904); drei abhandlungen zur sexuaitheorie (1905); vorlesungen sur einfihrung in die psychoanalyse (1916). freud’s complete works have been published in spanish (obras completas) (1924), and ger- man (gesammelte schriften) (1925); the greater part of them has been translated into english and other languages. short accounts of the subject-matter and history of psychoanalysis will be found in: freud, ueber psychoanalyse (the lectures delivered at worcester, u.s.a.) (1909); zur geschichte der psychoanalytischen bewegung (1914); selbsidarstellung (in grote’s collection die medizin der gegen- wart) (1925). particularly accessible to english readers are: a. a. brill, psycho-analysis (1922); ernest jones, papers on psycho- analysts (1923). (s. fr.) psychology (see 22.547b, also psychiatry; psychosis; psyychotherapy).—the most important influence affecting re- cent developments of psychology has been the widespread use of experimental methods of investigation, and a general accept- ance of their implications. experiment in psychology is, as c. s. myers points out, “ at least as old as aristotle.” but its systematic and unrestricted application to psychological problems, and particularly a recog- nition of all that this involves with regard to the general nature of psychological theory, are a comparatively recent growth. these, more than anything else, have brought psychology into line with the other biological sciences, have transformed its questions from those of descriptive analysis to those of function, have contributed most powerfully to the destruction of the purely introspective, atomistic or mosaic psychology of the past and have encouraged and rendered possible the important practical applications of psychology which have characterised the period under review, and are particularly vigorous at the present time. behaviourism.—this account of general theoretical develop- ments may begin by a reference to behaviourism, itself a direct result of the application of experiment to psychology. the early behaviourists were all interested mainly in animal conduct. they studied, not merely the reactions of particular parts of an organism, but the response of the organism as a whole; not mere- ly the effects of particular isolated stimuli, but the influence of what they called the “ whole situation,” including in the latter the past history of the organism itself. they tried to show how more complex forms of response (e.g., instinct and habit re- sponses) may grow up out of combinations of simpler reaction (e.g., tropisms and reflexes), and they made a great amount of use of pawlow’s principle of ‘ conditioned reflex,” erecting it into the most important explanatory principle of complex forms of conduct. they then applied exactly the same methods 255 to the study of human behaviour. they tended at once to be- come philosophical, and to assert that there is no such thing as consciousness, thereby opening up a large amount of fruitless and violent controversy. all that their method demanded they should assert was that consciousness need not be invoked as a determining condition of any form of response with which the psychologist must deal. perhaps no psychologist has yet pro- vided a thoroughly convincing refutation of this position, but the attempt to establish the precise functions of consciousness in human conduct—whether stimulated directly by behaviourist writings or not—has produced much important research. relations with physitology—experimental physiologists have made striking advances in our knowledge of the physics and chemistry of muscular contraction, of the effects of glandular secretion, of the conditions and character of the conduction of nerve impulses, and of the functions of peripheral nerves and of the central nervous system. these have all helped to delimit the range of psychology, to show, that is, precisely where the psychological problems emerge. of the most direct significance to the psychologist have been the researches of neurologists— provided with unrivalled experimental material in the course of the world war—into the effects of localised injuries to the brain and spinal cord. perhaps the most significant of these is the work of henry head, who has carried further his investiga- tions of the functions of the afferent sensibility by a thorough study of the “ high level ’’ responses involved in the use of language. his work represents the first attempt to carry out a searching investigation of the problems of aphasia by the systematic application of specifically psychological tests. psychical activity—broadly speaking the result of all this work seems to show that conditions which at present, at any rate, have to be treated as definitely “‘ psychical”’ play an efficient part in the determination of all highly developed con- duct, and that the most fundamental of these have to do (a) with the emergence of meaning as a factor in response, (b) with the development and functions of images and (c) with the growth and reactive significance of the various forms of feeling. thus although the methods of control of pre-conscious and conscious reactions may be the same, the factors in control appear to be different. gestalt theory —more purely psychological paths of approach seem to converge toward the same conclusion. what is known as gestalttheorie has had a great influence upon recent psychological formulations. this, developed by wertheimer and his associates, was in the first place concerned with the psychology of perception. its central contention is that all of the material (or “ objects ”’) dealt with at the level of psychological responses are gesealien, (wholes, forms, configurations—there is no exact english equivalent) diversified or complex, but in no sense capable of expression in terms of the parts which they may seem to contain. it is perhaps not unfair to say that the whole of this important movement is concerned with an elucidation of the character and functions of meaning in psychological responses. imagery.—another active development is connected with the names of jaensch and of his collaborators and pupils. jaensch claims to have discovered a new and important type of imagery, photographically accurate, projected, coloured and abnormally resistant to the usual wearing effects of time. such imagery is common in early life, but later is overlaid or outgrown, and is called eidefic. these workers try to show that all psychological problems centre in the use and functions of tmuges. psychoanalysis ——most prominent of all, particularly outside strict academic circles, has been the influence of a variety of views which are generally rather loosely put together and referred to as “ psychoanalysis ”’ (q¢.v.), freud, jung, adler and a host of en- thusiastic followers in all countries, have developed and _ pro- mulgated its doctrines. probably most psychologists would maintain that the practical significance of psychoanalysis out- weighs its theoretical importance, but a convinced psycho- analyst is rarely willing to admit that this is the case. this movement, in all its many, and often conflicting forms, has con- clusively demonstrated the enormous part which may be played 256 in the determination of human response by factors which remain totally outside the range of normal waking consciousness. here also, we have at its height the tendency to concentrate upon feeling as the predominant psychological factor in the explana- tion of conduct. social psychology —social psychology, largely under the influence of the writings of mcdougall, and also affected to a considerable extent by modern psychopathology, has been verv much to the fore. lately attempts have been made in various directions to bring social psychology more immediately into touch with ethnology, history and economics, and so to check its hitherto marked tendency to wide and rash generalisation. experimental psychology.—these more general and inclusive movements, though all largely influenced by experimental method, contain many features that can hardly be said to havea definite experimental basis. if we turn to a survey of the field of experimental psychology proper, we are met by a bewildering diversity of effort. there is hardly any problem over the whole range of individual conduct which some experimentalist has not attempted to tackle. probably the chief impression to be ob- tained is that even in the field of sensorial reactions there is comparatively little that has been treated as completely and finally established. yet more obviously is this true of the psychology of perception, of recall and memory, of imaging, of thinking in all its forms, and of feeling and willing. but in all these fields alike evidence is accumulating to show that no formulation of the conditions of reactions which confines itself to physical and chemical and to physiological terms is adequate to account for the complexity of life at the human level. on the whole, for example, the james-lange hypothesis of the causation and character of emotions becomes less, rather than more cer- tain, as research progresses. applied psychology—particularly striking developments have occurred in the realms of applied psychology. the most important of these have concerned (a) education, (4) industry, (c) medicine and (d) law. . education.—the psychological problems which have taken the most prominent position in relation to education have concerned the theory and application of intelligence tests (g.v.). in every country numerous groups of tests of intelligence have been pro- posed and used. at the same time the theoretical study of the relation of these tests to the nature and functions of intelligence has been pushed much further. there is still frequent and vigorous controversy as to the nature of “ general intelligence,” or of a possible “ general factor’ in intelligence (see intelli- gence, human). in this, modern psychology has made great use of statistical methods. in many quarters intelligence tests have been employed to supersede or to supplement the common written examination. numerous attempts have been made to render the tests more immediately practical by adapting them to groups rather than to individual children, apart from intel- ligence tests proper, tests of capacity for practically every kind of specific ability involved in educational attainment, from ‘low level’? motor activities to the most complex co-ordinations of mechanical and intellectual skill, have been developed and applied. the enthusiasm of the mental test devotee has, in fact, probably far outrun his discretion. at the same time the prac- tical application of psychological principles to methods of teach- ing has been much emphasised, and in particular there has been a persistent and widespread effort to co-ordinate the treatment of mental defect in children with its precise experimental study. the psychoanalytic movement has had a profound influence in most countries upon methods of education particularly of young children. , industrial —america led the way in the application of psy- chology to industrial organisation and administration. but the movement spread rapidly and at present england, france, italy, germany, holland and other countries all have strong and active institutions concerned with the study of the human ele- ment in industry. in the main the problems dealt with are of three types: (a) those of vocational guidance and selection (see jos analysis); (6) those of industrial fatigue (see industrial psychology psycno.ocy) and (c) those of motion study, vocational guid- ance and selection is definitely related to the mental test move- ment, and is directed to the avoidance of misfits in industry, and to the guidance of individuals into those industrial occupa- tions for which their special abilities particularly ft them. the study of industrial fatigue is directed toan amelioration of work- ing conditions so as to avoid undue irritability, overstrain, weakening of interest and general loss of capacity, and at the same time to retain and increase industrial productivity. mo- tion study is directed to the elimination of unnecessary move- ments in manual work, and to the discovery of paths of move- ment and methods of work which are alike agreeable to the operative and economically desirable. a very important branch of the third of these movements is the study of the human factor in industrial accidents. standardised diagnostic tests for the “accident prone class”? are in process of rapid formation. closely related to its industrial application is the use made of psychology in naval and military organisation. this was greatly stimulated by the demands of the world war, and is now widely recognised. medicine.—the war, again, had a large influence in arousing increased interest in psychological medicine. modern trench fighting enormously increased the incidence of mental and nervous disorders in the forces engaged, and consequently the tremendous social importance of the treatment of psychopatho- logical states has been forced upon the public attention. in every civilised country the psychological genesis and nature, as well as the frequency, of numerous disorders possessing obvious physical symptoms are now widely acknowledged, and training in the recognition and treatment of mental disease is far more generally a part of medical education than has ever before been the case. legal problems.—this once more has important and im- mediate applications to legal procedure. the relation of the study of mental disease to the problems of legal and moral delinquency is now freely admitted. modern theories of the causation of abnormal conduct are applied to an understanding of the behaviour of the criminal. the general aim here 1s to be able, within limits, to control behaviour in the directions which are recognised as legally and socially desirable. a beginning has also been made—mainly by the use of modern experimental methods of the registration of emotional expression—in the de- velopment of a psychological technology for the detection of crime. not much work has been accomplished in the application of psychological theories and methods of explanation to prob- lems of religious and aesthetic experience. conclusion.—this brief survey of contemporary psychology shows the diversity of its interests, and the many-sided develop- ment which it has undergone. such development was, indeed, inevitable. for psychology is a systematic attempt to under- stand the responses which man makes to his environment, and consequently has vital significance tn relation to all branches of human effort. what has emphatically characterised psycholog- ical developments during the period under survey, is the tend- encvy to make of ps¥chology a science more concrete, more realistic, more closely in touch with actual human responses as they can be observed under definite conditions of reaction. at the same time the older, more purely introspective, more philo- sophical psychology has been far from inactive. in the main it has been preoccupied with problems of an epistemological order, and particularly with elaborate analyses of the factors which enter into perception as a form of knowledge (see knowledge, tueory of). everywhere in psychology the main drift appears to be away from atomistic and mechanical types of explanation toward a recognition of the unique, though complex, activities and patterns of activity which govern and direct all highly de- veloped human conduct and feeling, and gradually build up the constructions of human knowledge. brntrograppuy.—the period surveyed has been one of extraordi- nary literary activity. nothing more is here attempted than the selection of a few representative books. the order follows that adopted in the above article; only books having a predominant psychological interest are mentioned. psychosis behaviourism: j. b. watson, behaviour: an introduction to com- parative psychology (1914); psychology front the standpoint of a behaviourist (philadelphia and london, 1918). for a completely site point of view see w. mcdougall, ozdline of psychology 1923). gestalttheorte: ix. koffka, the growth of afind (1924); w. kohler, the mentality of apes (1925); m. wertheimer, dre: abhandlungen zur gestalitheorie (erlangen, 1925). __ eidetic imagery: g. w. allport, ‘ eidetic imagery,” of psychology, vol. 15 (1924), with bibliography. psychoanalysis: ete.: c. g. jung, the psychology of the uncon- scious (1917); e. jones, papers on psychoanalysis (1923); c.g. jung, psycholagical types (1923); a. adler, the practice and theory of individual psychology (1924); s. freud, collected papers (1924-8). social psychology: m. ginsberg, the psychology of soctety (1921); w. h.r. rivers, psychology and politics (1923). experimental psychology: c.s. myers and f.c. bartlett, a text- book of fxperimental psychology, parts 1 and 2 (cambridge; 192 5). _ see also current psychological periodicals. 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