PSYCHOLOGY 1 



There is a French Psychology as there is an English 

 and a German Psychology. It does not have the distinct- 

 ly introspective nor the experimental-psycho-physical 

 character that are predominant features of the English 

 and the German psychology. Positivism gave rise to 

 TAINE (1828-1893), whose struggle against the spiritual- 

 istic interpretation of psychologic phenomena prepared 

 the way in France for our present-day ideas regarding 

 the relation of genius to insanity and of double person- 

 ality and allied phenomena to the hysterical constitution. 

 Investigation of these relations was greatly advanced 

 by the work of CHARCOT (1825-1895), in his clinic for 

 nervous and mental diseases at the Salpetriere (1880), 

 which stimulated the scientific imagination of French 

 students of psychology, and so opened the way for a 

 series of brilliant researches, within recent years, into the 

 nature of certain abnormal mental phenomena. These 

 studies appear to be of fundamental importance. Under 

 controlled conditions they penetrate beyond the data of 

 introspection, and they have already developed our 

 concept of the Unconscious as a residuum of experiences, 

 intelligent in the sense of being adaptable, and hence 

 as supplying the motives of behavior, whether normal 

 or abnormal. 



The French psychologists, too, have developed the 

 social aspects of their science. The disciples of Comte 

 had been busy at finding the place of social science in a 



1 [Drafting Committee: J. R. ANGELL, University of Chicago; 

 R. H. GAULT, Northwestern University. ED.] 



305 



