DISCOVERY 



1U9 



Similar criticism, is directed against Prof. MacDougall's 

 conception of a group mind as an entity transcending the 

 individual minds of which the group is composed, a con- 

 ception in which the author detects a conservative and 

 aristocratic bias since, he says, the group mind cannot 

 speak for itself, but is " apparently only interpreted 

 by the ' best ' minds of the community," and the idea of 

 its superiority tends to further the preservation of a 

 status quo. 



The modern reaction against reason and the comple- 

 mentary importance given to impulse and intuition is 

 criticised as an attempt to isolate reason artificially as a 

 faculty separate from sense and impulse, and as a failure 

 to regard the self-conscious personality as a whole. 



The book ends with a chapter on organisation and 

 democracy, in which a somewhat pessimistic view is taken 

 of the possibility of true representative government by 

 the people. 



F. A. H. 



The Psychology of Thought and Feeling. By Charles 

 Platt, Ph.D., M.D. (Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & 

 Co., Ltd., 75. 6d.) 



Dr. Platt has attempted the difficult task of giving a 

 ' ' fairly reasonably complete survey of the whole field of 

 psychology " ; but the field is a large one, and much of the 

 territory not very definitely mapped, so that the author, 

 in order to be comprehensive and at the same time easily 

 read, has been compelled to make the subject appear 

 a good deal more simple than his readers are likely to find 

 it on closer acquaintance. For instance, some of the 

 chapters that contain detailed instructions for improving 

 the memory or fairly easy generalisations about educa- 

 tion rather suggest that they fill in gaps that would 

 otherwise be occupied by somewhat difficult aspects of the 

 subject. The first part of the book is mainly an exposi- 

 tion of Prof. MacDougall's Social Psychology ; the latter 

 part of the book deals clearly and vigorously with the 

 " subconscious mind," and as completely as is consistent 

 with the omission of what is controversial, proceeding to a 

 discussion of mysticism, telepathy, and spiritualism. 



Dr. Platt believes in the theory of spiritualism on the 

 grounds of its intrinsic acceptability to the human mind, 

 for he does not consider that it is " based on any scientific 

 foundation," and he appears to reject the so-called 

 " spiritistic " phenomena as evidence of external agency. 



A short account is given of Freud's earliest theory of 

 the causation and treatment of the neuroses, which is 

 clearly dealt with and is accepted by the author, although 

 he does not subscribe to the generalisations of the Freudian 

 school of psychology. 



The volume ends with a chapter on " the delinquent," 

 in which a well-justified plea is made for the consideration 

 of the criminal either as a psychopath or as a potentially 

 good citizen who is the victim of his environment, in any 

 case as an individual to be segregated, rather than 

 punished to vindicate the rights of society. 



The substance of the book was delivered as a series of 

 popular lectures in America, an origin that probably 



accounts for the rather dogmatic and sometimes colloquial 

 style that is especially marked in the earlier portion. 



F. A. H. 



The Beloved Ego. By Dr. W. Stekel. (Kegan Paul, 

 Trench, Triibner & Co., Ltd., 6s. 6d.) 



This book was the first introduction of its author to the 

 English-speaking public, and it will be welcomed by all 

 those interested in analytical psychology. It is popular 

 in character and more readable than many novels. It 

 differs from all previous books of the kind in being the 

 work of a poet who is also a man of science, and the 

 literary style as well as the insight show unmistakable 

 traces of the poet's vision. In Dr. Stekel's preface to the 

 English edition he tells us that one of his " first and best 

 teachers of Psychology was an Englishman — Shakespeare, 

 now in the Heaven of the Immortals." 



The book consists of nineteen sketches, the first one 

 dealing with the subject of the book, " The Beloved Ego." 

 In this chapter Dr. Stekel plumbs the depths of our self- 

 love. According to him we are born egoists, and the 

 whole education of life consists in a progression from 

 egoism to altruism. The nature of love is analysed. 

 We like a person who holds " our " views, a picture, 

 when seen with " our " eyes, a poem, when it gives expres- 

 sion to " our " mood. And that girl pleases us who has 

 our own traits. " We see a being who is as we would 

 wish to be ourselves." There is an ironic touch in the 

 description of flocks of people at the seaside or in city 

 parks, " who are only really happy when they can show 

 themselves for hours to their fellow men and women." 

 The " popular sun baths are baths of self-love, and would 

 never be taken at all if the bathers were isolated from each 

 other." The Beloved Ego sometimes works through under- 

 estimation of self, " because all life appears in a double 

 form (the law of bi-polarity)." These egoists are tor- 

 tured by their own inferiority, they cannot trust them- 

 selves, they are what one might call inverted egoists. Dr. 

 Stekel finds the whole world interpenetrated by our Ego- 

 rays. "We find a person unsympathetic if he. brings 

 before our eyes our own bad qualities in caricature. We 

 hate anyone when he personifies an unpleasant part of our 

 soul." The chapter ends on a note of hope: " We see 

 nothing but ego-rays which are at war with each other, 

 an eternal chaos out of which will eventually be born 

 the eagerly desired world of altruism." 



Closely allied to self-love is the " will to power." Dr. 

 Stekel sees in this the root cause of the fight of the sexes, 

 which extends from marriage into social life, and comes to 

 rich fruitage in many " neurotics who shrink from every 

 love as from one which might put them in bonds, because 

 the}' are afraid of the domination of one outside them- 

 selves." 



In the remaining chapters we are introduced to char- 

 acters well known to all of us. There are the " Half- 

 Men," such as the " half-artist, half business-man " ; the 

 " half-pious, half -atheist " ; the "Tialf Don- Juan, and 

 half-philistine." These dissociated personalities split 

 themselves up in different endeavours, and bring nothing 



