PAPERS ON PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 473 



becomes the urge to social, political, ethical and religious 

 ideals. 



Dr. Prince has done some excellent work in the study 

 of multiple personality. His striking conclusion is not 

 the mystery of multiple but the achievement of unitary 

 personality. Instead of looking at the ego as a unity 

 with various faculties, he considers it to be a composite 

 structure built out of psycho-physical dynamic mechan- 

 isms, called instincts, each having within itself its own 

 driving force. Each instinct is a dynamic mechanism 

 striving toward an end. The ends differ and often are 

 in conflict wth each other. Personality, as Professor 

 Angell points out, possesses intrinsically tendencies to 

 unify and organize these instinctive tendencies into a 

 consistent and harmonious whole. 



Let us now take up the study of the psychical life in 

 greater detail to see what ideal tendencies it discloses. 

 Instincts are more or less definite mechanisms of be- 

 havior. They serve the purpose without previous train- 

 ing to adjust the organism to its environment. They 

 may be explained mechanically, as the result of open 

 synapses in the cerebro-spinal system. They may be ex- 

 plained genetically by referring to the evolutionary pro- 

 cess by which they came into being. They doubtless arose 

 because they have survival value for the organism. 

 While it is true that the mechanism of instinct requires 

 a stimulus to set it going, the resulting action is not in 

 the strict sense a mechanical product, because the re- 

 sponse looks forward to the good of the organism. The 

 end is often quite remote. The bee gathers wax and con- 

 structs its cell in order to store up its honey. The food 

 instinct impels to the immediate gratification of hunger, 

 but it serves a remoter purpose in storing up glycogen 

 in the muscles, nerves and liver for future use when the 

 relations between the organism and environment become 

 strained. The mastery impulse strives immediately to 

 overcome a present obstacle to the well-being of the or- 

 ganism, but a remoter end appears in the feeling of 

 satisfaction growing out of the consciousness of its own 

 superiority. It lies at the root of the problem solving 

 disposition. When coupled with the social instinct it 



