ESSAYS 



METHODS IN" PSYCHOLOGY: The Enunciation of the Central 

 Problem and the Solution (Arthur Lynch, M.A., C.L., L.R.C.P., 

 M.R.C.S.). 



Every man of science who lifts his eyes beyond his own special field of study 

 becomes convinced of the importance of the relation that connects it with other 

 domains ; he finds this impression of co-ordination deepened in proportion as his 

 own view becomes more extensive, until at length he recognises that the divisions 

 or classifications of the sciences correspond less to the nature of things than to the 

 limitations of our own faculties. Having arrived so far he is in a fair way to 

 becoming a philosopher, even though he may find an aversion to the term induced 

 by the volumes wherein so much reading in abstruse matter is associated with 

 loose argument and sterile result. 



Yet even to the man of science, accustomed to test his work by the appeal 

 to Nature, I say that Psychology should be regarded as the " Queen of the 

 Sciences " in a deeper sense than that which influenced Gauss to bestow the title 

 on mathematics. 



Through Psychology, properly presented, we should gain a view of co-ordina- 

 tion of the sciences not derived from historical associations nor brought into 

 evidence merely by the assistance that one science may render to another, but in 

 a more profound sense, which may, in part, be thus expressed : when we make 

 abstraction as far as possible of the actual objective character of the matters 

 studied, and consider in a generalised form the methods employed, and the move- 

 ments of the mind which correspond to these methods, we recognise the similarity 

 in various fields of the underlying schemata of thought. 



As an example, I remember a remark of Sir William Gowers, the distinguished 

 neurologist, who told me that his system of note-taking and reasoning thereon 

 reminded him of the work of an accountant. This is only one out of countless 

 instances that could be given, but, with this observation by the way, I seek a 

 deeper basis for these correspondences. As we continue our analysis persistently, 

 disregarding in scientific processes the inessential details, we will eventually find 

 that the similarity of methods has its source in the modes of working of the mind, 

 and these modes will at length be seen to be combinations of certain fundamental 

 processes. It is one of the objects of this paper to lay these bare ; and the mean- 

 ing of what has been said will become clearer and more significant, I believe, in 

 the course even of this brief exposition. The general problem is far wider in 

 scope than that simply dealing with the co-ordination of the sciences, and the 

 corollaries in every field of thought will be found important enough to satisfy the 

 most exacting. 



At the threshold, however, it is well to say a few words on the claims of those 

 who regard a biological, or even a physiological treatment of psychology, as the 



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