THE CONSULTING PSYCHOLOGIST 289 



for the consistent readjustment of one particular little feature, he will 

 tone down, haul in his flying colors, and investigate the ground on 

 which he stands. He may even go so far as to feel that whatever is is 

 best under the circumstances. Here is where his mellowness of experi- 

 ence, knowledge of men and evolution of institutions, and his practical 

 sagacity will be tested. If he is shrewd he will progress slowly and by 

 such steps that both he himself and his superiors may acquire confi- 

 dence in his work. At the same time he will miss no opportunity of 

 making himself useful in a tentative and provisional way. 



He is not a practising physician. "While a medical education is 

 most desirable he must have a really different point of view from that 

 of the practising physician. In the first place, he observes and recog- 

 nizes the mental half of man in a way in which the institutional physi- 

 cian does not; and herein lies his mission. His place is to supplement 

 the work of the physician. 



He does not surrender his scientific freedom. With all these re- 

 strictions he must demand one great privilege, the freedom of a man 

 of science. Unless he is given time for patient and deliberate search, 

 freedom from necessity to rush into print, exemption from excessive 

 routine duties, reasonable physical equipment and assistance, he can 

 not grow into that scholarly attitude which is necessary for effective 

 work and results on a large scale. 



What then shall be his training? Applied psychology is more diffi- 

 cult than pure psychology, if such there be. The consulting psychol- 

 ogist must, therefore, like all consulting experts, come with high quali- 

 fications. In the first place he should have the laboratory training in 

 psychology which would correspond to that required for the doctorate 

 in order to get thoroughly impregnated with the spirit of research, but 

 this graduate work could profitably be planned with reference to the 

 field he is to enter. Then he must have knowledge of, and training 

 in, that phase of work which he is to pursue, such as education, 

 medicine, sociology, etc. And in addition to this academic training he 

 must go through a process of apprenticeship in the field before he is 

 qualified for the most responsible work. But he will be a university 

 product in the best sense, and the universities must rise to the recog- 

 nition of this opportunity for usefulness. 



Just one concrete illustration of what a consulting psychologist is 

 doing now in the way of scientific adjustment in an institution. In 

 the New Jersey Training School for Feeble-minded, at Vineland, Dr. 

 Goddard, in most hearty cooperation with Superintendent Johnstone, 

 has carefully graded the children by the Binet method; i. e., he has 

 determined the age of mental development and capacity, as opposed to 

 the physical age. The children are then kept under systematic ob- 

 servation by the staff and record is made for the purpose of establishing 



VOL. LXXVIII. — 20. 



