650 



NA TURE 



[November i i, 1922 



of Dr. M. O. Forster, although apparently it has not 

 been found possible to combine these two qualities 

 with " considerable Indian experience," which the 

 committee regards as " almost essential." 



Among the many difficult questions which the 

 committee has carefully considered are : (i) The 

 claims of local administrations on the services of the 

 professorial staff for special investigations outside 

 the Institute. Admitting the occurrence of exception- 

 ally urgent instances, the committee thinks that any 

 tendency in this direction to. take members of the 

 staff away from their immediate duties inside the 

 Institute 'should be resisted. (2) The investigation 

 of special technical problems for outside persons. 

 These, the committee thinks, might be permitted 

 under suitable control at the expense of the appli- 

 cants, so long as a fee be also charged and be wholly 

 credited to the Institute funds, no part of the fees 

 thus obtained being granted to the salaried members 

 of the staff who may undertake the work. (3) The 

 committee considers that the higher staff should not 

 accept any private practice which involves work to 

 be carried out in the Institute laboratories, although 

 it might be permissible for a professor to undertake 

 purely consulting practice, subject to the approval 

 of the council and with specified limitations. (4) 

 While a member of the staff should enjoy the copy- 

 right benefits of any book of which he is the author, 

 the committee is less decided about his taking out 

 patent rights for inventions arising out of work done 

 at the Institute. Each specific case of the sort which 

 arises should be dealt with by the council on its 

 merits. (5) Technical investigations in the Institute 

 which successfully lead to work on a factory scale 



(when, naturally, commercial interests intervene) 

 should be stopped at this stage. In the opinion of 

 the committee, the work should then be transferred 

 to a commercial firm, which might, if necessary, 

 employ members of the staff in a purely consultative 

 capacity. (6) The Institute should not undertake 

 routine analyses and determinations ; these should be 

 left to the private enterprise of outside chemical firms. 



The committee thinks that the necessary co- 

 ordination of the work of the Institute with that of 

 Indian universities will be in part effected by the 

 university representatives on the council and by more 

 efficient publication of information regarding the 

 activities of the Institute itself. It is suggested that 

 the Journal of the Institute should be expanded to 

 be made of more general interest ; that the local 

 organisation of an Indian section of the Society of 

 Chemical Industry should be undertaken ; that the 

 staff should be encouraged, by the grant of travelling 

 expenses, to take part in the annual meetings of the 

 Indian Science Congress ; and that a report on the 

 research programmes in progress at the Institute 

 should be submitted annually to the Indian Board of 

 Scientific Advice. 



Because of the isolated location of the Institute, 

 the committee recommends an improvement in the 

 hostel accommodation, especially for the benefit of 

 married students, and generally an increase in the 

 facilities for games and other social amenities. To 

 ensure that progress is effected on sound lines, it is 

 recommended that the Governor-General in Council 

 as visitor should institute, once in every quinquen- 

 nium, a review of the operations of the Institute by 

 a special committee of inquiry. 



Psycho-Analysis and Education. 



T 



HE place of psycho-analysis in schools was the 

 subject of a discussion at a joint meeting of 

 Sections of Psychology and Education of the British 

 Association meeting in Hull. The crowded meeting 

 testified to the evident interest taken in the subject, 

 and to the growing appreciation of the need in 

 educational work of a closer co-operation between 

 those who are responsible for the training of the 

 young, and those who are making a scientific study 

 of mind working and development. 



It will be well at the outset to state that the term 

 psycho-analysis was used by all speakers in the broad 

 sense of mental exploration to discover, or at least 

 trace, the mental history of the abnormal child, the 

 cause of his mal-development, feeble intelligence, 

 delinquency, or vicious conduct. In no case was the 

 term used in the strict Freudian sense ; in fact, Dr. 

 Crichton Miller, one of the speakers, expressly stated 

 that, in order to avoid any misconception arising from 

 the use of a term that might imply exclusively the 

 theory and technique laid down by Prof. Freud, he 

 preferred to use the term analytical psychology. 



Appearing first as a method of treating nervous 

 disorders Dr. Miller said that analytical psychology 

 has a wider function. Its real scope and value should 

 be preventive, its application as universal as the 

 accepted principles of hygiene, and its propaganda 

 carried on by all who have a stake in the next genera- 

 tion. Hence its importance to teachers, and hence 

 the necessity for teachers to understand and value it 

 in their own experience. 



The advent of analytical psychology marks a new 

 era in education because it makes a new demand, 

 that the teacher should know, not only his subject 

 and his pupil, but himself. It follows that one of the 

 chief functions of analytical psychology in education 

 is not to enable the teacher to analyse his pupils — a 



NO. 2767, VOL. IIO] 



tei 1 1 t 1 1 < il task for which he cannot usually have either 

 the tune or the training — but to help the teacher to 

 recognise and remedy failures of character develop- 

 ment in himself, the inherent childishness, the 

 prejudice, and self-deception which are the chief 

 obstacles to understanding children, and handling 

 them wisely. If there are still teachers who maintain 

 that analytical psychology is irrelevant to their work, 

 1 >r. Miller reminded them that their failures will come 

 to be judged by analysts later who have to attempt the 

 re-education of the adult who might have developed 

 into a man, and instead developed into a neurotic. 



Dr. C. W. Kimmins in opening the discussion 

 presented the case from the schools point of view, and 

 claimed that the time was singularly opportune for a 

 clear statement by the experts of the possibilities, and 

 limitations, of the part a well-qualified psychologist 

 could take in the appraisement of intellectual values, 

 and in helping to solve those complex problems 

 presented by the abnormal child. 



The improvement attending the use of intelligence 

 tests in the selection of children for promotion over 

 the method of marks gained by the usual examination 

 method has already been demonstrated, and there is 

 no doubt that in the greater freedom of the child, and 

 the fuller scope it has of self-expression and self- 

 development under the Montessori system, the 

 Dalton plan, or any other similar form of school 

 organisation, many of the so-called psycho-patho- 

 logical cases would disappear. But the child that 

 will not respond to normal methods of instruction or 

 treatment will probably always exist. The boy who 

 has no apparent mental or physical defect, is interested 

 in out-of-door life and plays games but shows no 

 interest in instruction, and is always at the bottom 

 of the class, is an educational failure, and a case for 

 the psychologist. A day-dreamer is another type. 



