I 



CHAPTER X 



The Psychology of Training and Organization ' 



T may be that some of you were alarmed by the word 

 " Psychology " appearing in the title of a lecture 

 which you had orders to attend. Possibly it opened up 

 to you the prospect of illimitable boredom. I own that 

 it is a subject which, with very little care, can be made both 

 boring and obscure. Many writers when dealing with 

 the mind obtain the two results with ease. But straight- 

 forward psychology is not metaphysical word- juggling, 

 and I hope to make what I have to say as clear as orders 

 should be made by those who issue them. Psychology 

 is nothing more than the way our minds work, and I should 

 like you to remember that the word " mind " is just useful 

 shorthand for the working of the brain. All of us have 

 some notion of what affects us or leaves us cold. We 

 respond to stimulation, we act or refuse to act. You 

 know what you like and what you dislike. Perhaps you 

 even know why you are here at all. Certainly you would 

 not have been at a lecturer's mercy if you had not been 

 moved by your minds, your brains, towards common 

 national ends. Many different reasons may have in- 



1 Lecture delivered at Purfleet Camp to the members of the O.T.C. 

 (Capt. B. C. Lake, O.C.) and the officers of the 7th Reserve Brigade. 191 5. 

 Although it is not an integral portion of this book I have given it a place 

 for reasons which will possibly be obvious to those interested alike in 

 science and in psychology, now rapidly becoming a science. 



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