98U 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 416. 



SCIENTIFW BOOKS. 

 The Mind of Man: A Text-hook of Psy- 

 chology. By GusTAV Spiller. London, 

 Swan Sonnenschein & Co. ; New York, The 

 Maomillan Co. 1902. Large 8vo. Pp. 552. 

 Text-books in psychology that may be rec- 

 ommended to the devotees of other sciences, 

 and that offer excellent starting points for 

 the discussion of the living- problems about 

 which psychological progress centers, are the 

 exception rather than the rule. When com- 

 bined with this there is a decided originality 

 of iiresentation and a freshness of outlook 

 and a happy facility of illustration, the recom- 

 mendation may be made more emphatic. All 

 of this is true of the work of Mr. Gustav 

 Spiller. Apart from one or two articles in the 

 philosophical xseriodicals, the author's name 

 is new to the psychological public; but the 

 present volume will certainly make it a fa- 

 miliar one in psychological discussion. 



Witbu so many merits — and these not the 

 usual ones — the volume has certain serious 

 defects. The adoption of a strange and un- 

 familiar, though intelligible, terminology ef- 

 fects a slight gain in precision by the sacrifice 

 of the greater good of the greater number, and 

 really seems unnecessary to the purpose. The 

 treatment of the opinions held by others is 

 cavalierish, to say the least. It seems almost 

 the foregone conclusion of the author that the 

 current or the popular opinion on any topic 

 is the wrong one ; whatever is, is wrong. Only 

 occasionally is the extreme form of this tend- 

 ency manifest; usually it is tempered by a 

 fair statement of the opinion current in the 

 literature. And it should be added at once 

 that the utilization of the literature of the 

 field and the convenient arrangement of the 

 bibliography add to the serviceableness of the 

 whole. None the less the author's bias in 

 favor of the unusual and the neglected leads 

 him more than once to underestimate the 

 force of opposing views and to dwell too ex- 

 clusively upon the evidence that appeals to his 

 own bent. 



The opening blast prepares one for innova- 

 tion. " I maintain not only that the element- 

 ary principles of psychology have still to be 

 e.st.ablished ; but I believe that, from the sci- 



entific point of view, no serious attempt has 

 yet been made in that direction." Unchal- 

 lenged tradition, imitative remodeling_ of cur- 

 rent views, a defective sense of reality, have 

 kept alive the opinions that influence psy- 

 chology. The watchword of the moment is 

 ' Back to observation.' And the observation 

 that is most fertile is that of trained introspec- 

 tion. The introspective method is the psy- 

 chological method and must ever remain so. 

 Those who have questioned either its validity 

 or its eificiency have been unaware of its 

 possibilities in trained minds. It requires 

 a skilful mechanic to use a complicated tool; 

 and the psychologist has been the poor me- 

 chanic laying the fault of his own defective 

 insight upon the imperfection of his tool. 

 " There is scarcely a passion so wild, or a 

 dream so subtle, that a trained psychologist 

 cannot collectively turn round and with free- 

 dom inspect the related processes." Experi- 

 mental introspection is the key that will un- 

 lock the real problems of psychology. 



The paramount doctrine of psychology is 

 that mental processes are determined by needs ; 

 that the aspect of mental processes that should 

 stand out boldest in the perspective, and 

 should dominate every detail as well, is the 

 functional one. Association, habit, memory, 

 imagination, attention, all travel along the 

 psychological highways in response to certain 

 organic needs. The study of these needs is the 

 study of psychology. " Psychology treats of 

 the nature and the satisfaction of those dis- 

 tinctive needs which are connected with the 

 central nervous system, and this it treats of 

 in systematic conjunction with the system of 

 sights, sounds, smells, etc., which are devel- 

 oping concurrently; i. e., psychology treats 

 of the needs which arise out of the relations 

 of the various systems in the organism, and 

 out of the relation of that organism to its 

 environment." 



Apart from this method of approach — which 

 in many ways represents a view of the topic 

 that others in writing and teaching are em- 

 phasizing, though with difl^erent motive — it is 

 likely that the book will carry more weight 

 and more interest by reason of the skill with 

 which the several chapters support their 



