J0NE 13, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



895 



another and higher realm, harmony im- 

 poses even upon the muses. 



Cassius J. Keyser 

 Columbia Univeksity 



CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGT: WHAT IT IS 

 AND WHAT IT IS NOT 



On an occasion like this^ it would seem 

 proper, representing as I do one of the 

 newest of the sciences, that I address my- 

 self to some of the basic questions of this 

 science. Perhaps the very first question 

 with which one is confronted is simply this : 

 "In view of the rapid multiplication of 

 the sciences, by what right does clinical 

 psychology lay claim to an independent 

 existence?" That is a question which may 

 perturb some sensitive minds, but it does 

 not disconcert the clinical psychologist, for 

 he regards the question as perfectly legiti- 

 mate and capable of satisfactory answer. 



It is just and proper that a new claim- 

 ant to membership in the family of sciences 

 should be required to present her creden- 



^ Substance of an address delivered before the 

 Conference on the Exceptional Child, held under 

 the auspices of the University of Pittsburgh, April 

 16, 1912. Lest misapprehensions arise, it should 

 be clearly understood that in this discussion I am 

 concerned only with the relation of clinical psy- 

 chology to mentally exceptional school children; 

 and that I distinctly recognize a different type of 

 exceptional children, namely, the physical defec- 

 tives. The physical defectives should be examined 

 by skilled pediatricians. The clinical psychologist 

 is interested in physically exceptional children if 

 they manifest mental deviations. Moreover, while 

 I hold that the psycho-clinical laboratories must 

 become the clearing houses for all types of men- 

 tally or educationally exceptional children in the 

 schools, nearly all mentally exceptional children 

 should be given a physical examination by con- 

 sulting or associated medical experts. Physical 

 abnormalities should, of course, be rectified, 

 whether or not it can be shown that they sustain 

 any causal relation to any mental deviations 

 which may have been disclosed in the psycho- 

 clinical examination. They may claim treatment 

 in their own right. 



tials. It is a natural human trait to chal- 

 lenge or contest the claims of a newcomer. 

 It has ever been thus. Every branch of 

 knowledge before winning recognition as 

 an independent science has been forced to 

 demonstrate that it possesses a distinct and 

 unique body of facts not adequately treated 

 by any other existing science; or that it 

 approaches the study of a common hody of 

 facts from a unique point of view, and 

 with methods of its own. Psychology, bio- 

 chemistry, dentistry, eugenics, historiom- 

 etry and many other sciences have been 

 thus obliged to fight their way inch by 

 inch to recognition as independent sci- 

 ences. It is not long since physiology 

 claimed psychology as its own child and 

 stoutly contested her rights to existence; 

 nor is it long since medicine denied any 

 right to independent existence to dentistry. 

 It is no surprise that a number of sciences 

 now claim clinical psychology as part and 

 parcel of their own flesh and blood, and 

 that they deny her the right to "split off 

 from the parent cell" and establish an un- 

 nursed existence of her own. Just as na- 

 ture abhors a vacuum, so science abhors 

 the multiplication of sciences; just as the 

 big corporation octopus in the industrial 

 world tries to get monopolistic control of 

 the sources of production and distribution, 

 so the various sciences, naturally insatiable 

 in their desire for conquest, attempt only 

 too often to get monopolistic control of all 

 those elements of knowledge which they 

 may be able to use for their own aggran- 

 dizement, whether or not they have de- 

 veloped adequate instruments for scien- 

 tifically handling those elements. 



Clinical psychology, however, is quite 

 ready to contest the attempts to deprive 

 her of her inalienable rights to the "pur- 

 suit of life and happiness." Fundamen- 

 tally, she bases her claims to recognition 

 as an independent science on the fact that 



