i8 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



as other quite specialized tests, that hold out promises of value in these 

 directions. 



It will be appreciated that a dynamic psychology has no exclusive 

 relation to the pathological, but rather seeks the recasting of psycho- 

 logical problems into a form more applicable to the uses not only of 

 pathological psychology, but of normal psychology and society in general. 

 It is in no way specificially referred to pathological material. Because 

 psychiatry has to deal, on the mental side, with personality, it desires a 

 psychology of personality. The study of normal personality, as such, 

 has its obvious and necessary relation to the pathological. The uni- 

 versity is in quite as favorable position to make essential contribution 

 to a psychology of personality as is the hospital or clinic. Research in 

 this direction encounters certain difficulties that are avoided in the 

 customary lines of psychological investigation, but this is so by very 

 virtue of its having personal applicability, its bearing upon more inti- 

 mate and vital issues. 



To adequately cover the teaching field of psychological medicine 

 one should therefore, on the one hand, be conversant with and able to 

 judge of the methods of experimental psychology in reference to their 

 application to the analysis and interpretation of symptoms ; and, on the 

 other hand, able to recognize and elucidate the more general questions 

 now stated dynamically. First-hand acquaintance with psychiatric 

 conditions and problems is everywhere implicit, which involves the 

 close and continual association with clinical material that is also neces- 

 sary for research. Here then the problem of research merges with the 

 problem of teaching, and we shall consider some phases of the subject 

 also from this standpoint. It is proposed to discuss in this connec- 

 tion not the further special topics of investigation, 12 but the practical 

 conditions under which such research takes place, and the most effec- 

 tive means of furthering it. 



The essential clinical material of psychopathology is derived from 

 various sources, approachable from different angles. According to 

 social stratum, the neuroses and various border-line and neurological 

 conditions are most seen either in the private practise of the specialist, 

 or in the appropriate departments of the general hospitals; the psy- 

 choses, as the term is generally understood, in the state or private hos- 

 pitals devoted to their care and treatment. Special institutions, as a 

 rule, care for the graver congenitally defective (feeble-minded) while 

 in some instances it has been found advisable to provide special insti- 

 tutions for the management of such conditions as epilepsy and alcohol- 

 ism. Much the greatest amount of material, and in its most accessible 

 form, exists therefore in the institutions; though it does not so greatly 



12 Some of which the writer has dealt with elsewhere ; cf . " The Experimental 

 Method in Psychopathology," N. Y. State Hospitals Bulletin, December, 1910. 



