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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1362 



niimerous medical sects, each of which 

 more or less insistently and ostentatiously 

 claims for itself either a monopoly of what 

 is useful in medical practise or the most 

 fruitful of therapeutic methods. The lay- 

 man, consequently, has grave doubts and 

 misgivings aibout the trustworthiness of 

 the art of medicine and the adequacy of its 

 scientific basis, which are identical in prin- 

 ciple with those entertained by the phys- 

 ician for psychology. It is therefore very 

 much to the point to establish the fact that 

 there exists a genuinely reliable, thor- 

 oughly scientific, and progressive science 

 of behavior and experience, which rightly 

 claims the name psychology, just as there 

 is a reliable body of knowledge concerning 

 human form, function, and disease, which 

 is called medicine. The fact that the word 

 "regular" must be used by a certain 

 group of medical men to distinguish them- 

 selves from other medical sects should not 

 be overlooked in this connection, for what 

 is desirable or necessary in medicine hap- 

 pens to be equally so in psychology. It is 

 also true that the broadminded, genuinely 

 scientific psychologist is likely to be as 

 much offended by the name telepathist, or 

 spiritualist, as is the "regular" physician 

 by the name eclectic, or osteopathist. 



There are at least five principal phases 

 or aspects of modern psychology which de- 

 serve mention although they have mdely 

 differing significance for medicine. They 

 may be designated as philosophical psy- 

 chology, psychical research, introspective 

 psychology, genetic psychology, and be- 

 haviorism. 



Philosophy, not many generations ago, 

 included all of the disciplines which are 

 now called natural sciences. Psychology 

 has been slowest to emancipate itself, 

 chiefly because its phenomena are most 

 difficult to study by scientific methods. 

 From certain points of view, philosophical 



psychology is quite as important as any 

 other aspect of the subject, but for the 

 present, at least, it need not especially con- 

 cern medical education or medical prac- 

 tise, and least of all should it be permitted 

 to obscure the development of psychology 

 along lines similar to those followed by 

 the other natural sciences. 



Despite claims to the contrary, psychical 

 research, and the spiritualistic develop- 

 ments of psychology, are too uncertain of 

 their facts and either too uncritical or un- 

 reliable as to methods to be seriously con- 

 sidered in connection with practical prob- 

 lems. What may develop from or through 

 them it would be rash to attempt to pre- 

 dict, but it is obviously safe to maintain 

 that they do not constitute the science of 

 psychology and lack immediately impor- 

 tant significance for medicine. 



The primary development of psychology 

 and its center of reference is the psychol- 

 ogy of the self. This is necessarily a 

 product of introspection or self-observa- 

 tion. It is the aim of introspective psy- 

 chology to discover the elements of ex- 

 perience, to formulate the laws of their 

 comibination, and to describe those com- 

 plex phenomena which constitute mind. 

 That much has been achieved in this direc- 

 tion must be evident to any intelligent 

 person who reads attentively the works of 

 leading introspective p^chologists. Medi- 

 cine can no more afford to neglect this im- 

 portant method of studying experience 

 and its expressions than can education or 

 any other art which works upon human 

 material. But it is equally true that in- 

 trospective psychology may not fairly or 

 profitably be accepted as the whole of the 

 science. 



The term genetic psychology has been 

 applied to the historical or developmental 

 description of behavior and experience, 

 which results from the application of the 



