DISCUSSION 173 



in 1903 ; also Wasmann, Die monistische 

 Identitdtstheorie und die vergleichende Psy- 

 chologie (The Monistic Theory of Identity 

 and Comparative Psychology), published in 

 the Biolog. Zentralblatt, 1903, Nos. 16, 17. See 

 also the remarks in my closing speech. 



(c) The monistic theory of transformation, which 

 seeks to explain psychical energy as being 

 merely a transformation of ' the general energy 

 which nils the universe,' is supported by no 

 real proof, and is as contradictory as the ' Two- 

 sided Theory ' just mentioned. That mechani- 

 cal energy can ever be transformed into physical 

 energy is just as untrue to facts, and just 

 as inconceivable logically, as that the move- 

 ment of atoms can ever be transformed into a 

 thought. Both forms of energy are different, 

 though they are in reciprocal action upon one 

 another, and the dualistic theory is certainly 

 in a better position to explain this action than 

 is the monistic theory. 



8. ' As a specialist in mental diseases, I have a 

 particular reason for rejecting the spiritual doctrine 

 of the unity of the soul, because just at the time 

 when alienists still accepted this doctrine, the insane 

 were most brutally treated. As we became more 

 monistic in our views, we treated the insane better, 

 and the more monistic we all become, the better 

 will our patients fare.' 



