900 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 963 



tions are fundamental or primaiy, and the 

 mental variations sequential, but the rem- 

 edy partly or chiefly educational. Here 

 we include malnutrition, rickets, maras- 

 mus, hypothyroidism, tuberculosis, heart 

 trouble, chorea and similar diseases. In 

 all of these the treatment must be pri- 

 marily medical, although there should be 

 a special temporary educational regimen 

 for these children. This group also in- 

 cludes the blind and the deaf. But here the 

 treatment is almost wholly educational. The 

 physical defects are incurable, but the men- 

 tal defects can be partly overcome by proper 

 compensatory educational treatment. The 

 epileptic also must be added to this group. 

 Epilepsy is evidently an active disorder or 

 disease process, although the pathology is 

 wrapped in the deepest obscurity. The 

 epileptics appear like purely medical 

 cases. The medical aspect certainly is im- 

 portant, but the records show that only 

 from 5 to 10 per cent, are curable, and that 

 the attacks can be as readily modified or 

 regulated in most cases by proper hygienic 

 treatment as by dnig medication or surg- 

 ical interference. Even with these unfor- 

 tunates it can be said that the best results 

 come from a proper medico-educational 

 regime — colonization, out-door employ- 

 ment, industrial schooling, bathing, etc. 



SUMMARY OF IMPOETANT CONCLUSIONS 



We are thus brought to the two follow- 

 ing conclusions : 



1. There is a set of unique facts — facts 

 of individual mental variation — which no 

 existing science has adequately treated. It 

 is with these facts that the work of the 

 clinical psychologist is concerned. Just as 

 psychology became an independent science 

 by demonstrating that it possessed a legiti- 

 mate claim to a unique world of facts, so 

 clinical psychology is ready to make her 

 declaration of independence and dedicate 



herself to the investigation of a body of 

 facts — facts of individual mental varia- 

 tion — not hitherto adequately handled by 

 any existing science. It is concerned with 

 the study of individual c#ses of deviate 

 mentality, particularly with those types 

 which are amenable to improvement or cor- 

 rection by psycho-educational processes. 



2. The proper handling of these cases, 

 whether for purposes of examination, 

 recommendation or prescription, can only 

 be done by a psycho-educational specialist 

 who possesses a technical knowledge of edu- 

 cational and child psychology, of child 

 hygiene, of the science and art of educa- 

 tion, and of various classes of mental de- 

 fectives or deviates. He should possess a 

 thorough grounding in clinical procedure, 

 particularly in the methods of clinical psy- 

 chology, while he must also have a certain 

 amount of training in pediatrics, physical 

 diagnosis, neurology and psychiatry. He 

 must be thoroughly skilled in the differen- 

 tial pedagogy appertaining to various 

 types of mentally exceptional children. 



G. The Relations of Clinical Psychology 

 — Some Affirmations and Denials. — There 

 is a number of sciences with which clinical 

 psychology is, will be, or should be, closely 

 related, but which are not synonymous 

 with clinical psychology. 



1. Clinical psychology is not the same as 

 ps-ychopathology. The typical alienist is 

 concerned with the study and treatment of 

 mental disorders (technically called psy- 

 choses) ; the clinical psychologist, on the 

 other hand, is concerned particularly 

 (though not solely) with the study of plus 

 and minus deviations from normal men- 

 tality. The alienist works chiefly with 

 adults, the clinical psychologist with chil- 

 dren. Few alienists possess any expert 

 knowledge of the literature bearing on 

 child or educational psychology, mental 

 deficiency, retardation or acceleration, 



