176 General Biology 



and matter are always together, neither may be given the preference. 

 Both are different sides of the same coin. Each thought-wave is always 

 associated with a nerve-wave of some kind, and neither can exist with- 

 out the other. Such men are called monists. It will be seen that the 

 term "monists" is applied to this group because they do not accept a 

 dualism in life. 



These different groups of contenders attack psychological problems 

 with different prepossessions. The spiritualist is likely to call himself 

 an interactionist in psychology, the materialist a behaviorist, and the 

 monist a parallelist. 



As it makes a profound difference to a patient which one of these 

 theories his physician holds, the student must know what each term 

 means, or he will be totally unable to pass judgment on the many and 

 conflicting discussions which are ever coming before him. 



The interactionist holds that the state of mind of an individual can 

 and does influence his physical being and vice versa. An example of 

 this is a man worrying over financial losses, whose body becomes run 

 down until disease clutches him. 



The behaviorist insists that only a definite physical reaction, meas- 

 urable in the laboratory, is valid data on which to base a scientific 

 conclusion, and that until the individual mentioned above shows a definite 

 measurable reaction, there is no change which we as scientists can use 

 or accept. 



The parallelist, insisting as he does that both the mentality and the 

 physical organ which is associated with it, are different sides of the same 

 thing, must necessarily consistently claim that the mind is totally unable 

 to influence the body and the body totally unable to influence the mind. 

 In fact, one prominent parallelist says that one may as well expect a 

 piece of beefsteak put into a sausage machine to come out a moonlight 

 sonata as to expect either body or mind to influence each other. 



It is, therefore, only the interactionist who can consistently speak of 

 nervous and mental diseases, and who can consistently use both physical 

 and psychic remedies. 



At this point we may consider what is commonly designated as 

 structural and functional psychology. 



Structural psychology concerns itself with (1) the general organi- 

 zation of an organism, (2) the general organization of its nervous sys- 

 tem, and (3) the organization of the specialized nerve parts, such as the 

 eye, ear, nose, etc. 



Functional psychology is interested in (1) the general way an 

 organism reacts (discrimination), (2) whether the organism can modify 

 its action (docility), and (3) in how many ways and in what way its 

 behavior will vary (initiative). 



Again the student must be cautioned not to let one side of a prob- 

 lem cause him to discard much that is of value in opposing schools of 

 thought. 



