12th March, 1018. 

 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TELEPHONY. 

 By Mr. John Lee, M.A. 



(Abstract.) 



The true student is always working at experimental 

 psychology. The working of the human mind is the most en- 

 trancing subject, and wherever we are we can watch its operations. 

 The waiter in Mr-. Beinard Shaw's early comedy asked us all to 

 watch the working of the barrister's brain. But not only 

 barristers have brains, and the true experimentalist will wish to 

 gather his data from a wider field. He will be interested in the 

 human mind normally, so to speak. He will watch carefully 

 when any factor comes into the normal life which will enable him 

 to study the human mind afresh. Now I am about to claim, that 

 the telephone is such a factor. It will be my effort to show that 

 some of the fundamental problems of psychology are capable of 

 fresh consideration by reason of the data which the use of the 

 telephone has placed at our disposal. For the telephone was 

 something more than a new instrument of communication ; it 

 was a revolutionary change in our method of communication ; the 

 telegraph was less revolutionary. The written message still 

 obtained, not essentially different from the written message which 

 we put carefully in an envelope. It was more brief, more blunt. 

 It eschewed the pretty politenesses of the ready letter writer, the 

 "kind regards," the "Yours faithfully," the "best love to all," 

 and "hope to find you well as it leaves me at present." It went 

 to the point without fuss or flummery. But the telephone 

 wrought a revolution. It brought us back to the courtesies of 

 speech ; it threw the cumbrous art of handw-'ting overboard. 

 It called on us to face each other direct ana without inter- 

 mediary, and so it affected our mental relationship. Deep called 



