SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— J. 393 



The study of the mental defective gives us a slow motion picture of the development 

 of the social self, slow enough in some instances to obtain a static cross section. The 

 mental defective is not lacking in any of the instinctive bases of the social self, yet he 

 is conspicuously lacking in integration, discrimination and control, and so in the power 

 of social adjustment. These are functions of the cerebral cortex and the ament lacks 

 an efficient cortex. Hughlings Jackson's work showed how the cortex is concerned 

 with control, Sherrington's showed the role of the cortex in integration, and Head's 

 illustrated the function of discrimination. These functions are concerned with 

 adaptation and this can only be developed if the cortex comes to full development. 

 This may be hindered in cases of primary amentia ; amentia from deprivation and 

 distortion of interests. 



Recent work by the author and Dr. Thomas has shown the continued development 

 of the mentally defective and the late adjustment to social conditions made by 

 backward children. Amentia should, therefore, be regarded not only as a deficiency 

 of intelligence, but another group should be recognised who show deficiency in social 

 adjustment. These latter may be divided into those who compensate by an excessive 

 egocentricity, such individuals often being epileptic, and those who are generally 

 inefficient who may be described as psychasthenic. This does not, of course, imply 

 that all psychoneurotics are defectives, but many who are regarded as psychoneurotic 

 are really suffering from a degree of amentia. 



Miss A. H. McAllister. — Adolescent Modes of Thinking. 



An investigation of 253 original stories for children, written by women student 

 teachers, average age 18 years 2 months, reveals evidences of certain common trends 

 of Thought, (a) Sixty-two per cent, fairy tales, i.e. stories in which the fantasies of 

 day-dreaming are employed. Twenty-four per cent, submitted nature tales, and only 

 14 per cent, contributed home tales, i.e. simple every-day incidents which might occur 

 in ordinary life, (b) An examination of the fairy tales gives the following data 

 regarding the adolescents' trend of thought. 



(1) Sixty per cent, of the stories make mention of ' mother ' only, as if hers is the 

 only adult influence at work in the home. 



Twenty per cent, only make reference to ' father,' and that only in conjunction 

 with mother. 



The same tendency to exclude father is evident also in the nature tales, which 

 mention mother and oSspring in their descriptions of bird and animal life without 

 any reference to the other parent. In the few home tales, father appears only to inflict 

 punishment for wrong doing. 



The adolescent seems to exclude father from conscious thought of home. This 

 may be due either to a sudden adolescent realisation of the importance in the home 

 of mother, whose offices are largely ' taken for granted ' during childhood, or it may 

 be due to the gradually developing sex-consciousness intensifying the ' mother ' 

 impulses in the girl herself. 



(2) In 48 per cent, of the fairy tales the human actors live ' In a little white or 

 thatched cottage on the edge of a wood or forest.' 



The wood or forest is a place of high adventuring in which difficulties are resolved 

 by the intervention of ' fairy ' power, so that the goal is attained romantically but 

 surely. The goal is always clearly set before the adventurous mortal and is self- 

 appointed. 



This reveals quite obviously the adolescent tendency to form clear-cut ideals ; 

 but it is to be noted that the adolescent has little thought for what difficulties may 

 really mean and always sees them as being cleared from the path of achievement — not 

 by self-help, but by other forces obligingly prepared to make each path smooth. 



(3) The adolescents' fairyland is a Utopia, a Heaven in which all desires are 

 fulfilled, all beauties enjoyed, (a) It is a place of exquisite beauty glowing with 

 sunshine and perfumed with the scents of iridescent flowers, (b) It is a busy world : 

 all have tasks to do and must do them well, (c) It is a secret world, open only to a 

 chosen few who have found the secret doorway by their own seeking. 



In their descriptions of this ideal world the adolescents reveal a surprising con- 

 ception of what community life ought to be, but it is significant that these conceptions 

 are worked out under the conditions of a Utopia. Not one of the home tales submitted 

 describes a happy, wholesome picture of normal home life. 



One hundred and forty-two original stories by women teachers, average age 



