The New Psychology

Extract

There is probably no name better known in the realm of psychology than Dr. McDougall’s, and that he should have deserted Oxford and England for Harvard and America will be a matter of continual regret to all who know him and have had the pleasure of listening to his lectures. The fact that his book on Social Psychology should have reached its fifteenth edition in twelve years is eloquent testimony at once to the growing popularity of the subject and to the skill and erudition of the author. Dr. McDougall has rendered us more than one service of inestimable moment. He has put an end at once to the crude materialism which would explain mind in terms of body, and to the atomic associationism which would reduce it to a conglomeration of simple ideas. Whether his arguments prove that the human soul is the evolutionary product of animal mind is open to question, but they at any rate prove that there is a human soul—which is something to be thankful for in days such as ours. They also show clearly that, whether all mental functions are developments of instinct or not, they at any rate play a much more important part in human life than is commonly supposed.