THE CONSULTING PSYCHOLOGIST 283 



THE CONSULTING PSYCHOLOGIST 



Bt PsorsSBOB C. E. SEASHORE 



8TATM UmrBBSITT Or IOWA 



TO the popular mind the '' consulting psychologist " is a medium in 

 the rookery on Broadway to whom one may go for paid advice — 

 decidedly practical. But the meaning ascribed to the term by Pro- 

 fessor Eoyce, in his now classic address before the National Educa- 

 tional Association, twelve years ago, has perhaps found some recogni- 

 tion. It is in this sense that I shall use the term. 



With the growth of science comes the specialist, and with the de- 

 velopment of the specialist comes the consulting specialist — a man who 

 does not engage in competition with the rank and file of the profession, 

 but conserves his energies and fits himself for dealing with special 

 problems. In the past the consulting practise has generally come as a 

 result of preeminent success in ordinary practise, and from a desire to 

 select the most important work. This is illustrated in medicine and 

 engineering. But with the passing of the self-made man, and with the 

 growing differentiation of work, comes an opportunity for the trained 

 specialist, still young, to get recognition for special service. In all the 

 branches of medicine and engineering, and in many other fields, there 

 is now a demand for the man who is master of something specific. 

 Now, as psychology becomes a science and so begins to show signs of 

 being of practical value, there is more and more demand for men who 

 have not only a thorough mastery of the subject, but who will devote 

 themselves to some aspect of its application. 



We are just now at an epochal turning point in psychology. The 

 subject is passing its infancy as a pure science and the world has taken 

 us all too seriously in the promise of what we can do to be useful. We 

 stand amazed in the face of the confident and insistent demand from 

 the various walks of life for psychological principles of explanation, 

 organization, guidance, economy, efficiency, conservation, expansion, 

 growth, evolution, development, transference, impression, retention, 

 elaboration, attention, affection, action, fatigue, rest, etc. The demand 

 comes from the arts, the sciences, the professions and the industries, as 

 well as from the patrons of liberal culture. Education as a science 

 knows no other foundation equal to psychology; fine art, in all its 

 branches, is interpreted in terms of psychology; social, charitable and 

 corrective agencies grope for psychological justification in every move- 

 ment; medicine, as it faces the bewildering ills of mental life, recog- 



