PREFACE

A group of problems that appears conspicuously in the present volume,

and in so far contributes to the fitness of its title, has obtained

a considerable interest on the part of the public at large. Such

interest seems prone to take its clue from the activity of those

who herald startling revelations on the basis of unusual psychic

experiences, and who give promise of disclosing other worlds than

the one with which common sense and common sensation acquaint us,

rather than from the cautious and consistent results of serious and

professional students in study or in laboratory. The fascination of

the unusual over the popular mind is familiar and intelligible, and

seems in no direction more pronounced than in matters psychological.

So long as this interest is properly subordinated to a comprehensive

and illuminating general view of the phenomena in question, it is

not likely to be harmful and may prove to be helpful. But when the

conception of the nature of our mental endowment and the interest in

the understanding thereof are derived from the unusual, the abnormal,

and the obscure, instead of from the normal, law-abiding observations

systematized and illuminated by long and successful research,

there is danger that the interest will become unwholesome and the

conception misleading. It is quite natural that the plain man should

be interested in the experiences of the world of mind which form an

intrinsic part of his common humanity; and it is equally natural that

he should find attraction in less commonplace and seemingly anomalous

mental phenomena. If thunderstorms were as rare as total eclipses of

the sun, it is likely that they would attract equal attention, be

looked upon as terrifying and portentous by superstitious humanity,

and be invested by tradition with mysterious significance, under

the influence of the interest in the unusual. The existence of this

interest is itself a distinctive trait meriting a psychological

interpretation, and one not likely to be overlooked. Its direction

and regulation become the care of the several departments of science

that deal with the respective subject-matters involved. And yet

in a special way, as expressions of the popular _esprit_, such

interests claim the psychologist's attention as they do not claim the

attention of representatives of other sciences. It may happen that

the astronomer finds an interest in noting popular conceptions in

regard to comets and life on other planets and beliefs about meteors

and eclipses, but such interest forms no essential part of his

occupation. He knows very well that the intelligent layman who wishes

to be informed on astronomical matters will turn with confidence

and respect to the accounts of the solar system, which represent

the result of generations of scientific research under the guidance

of exceptional ability and devotion. The psychologist is in a less

fortunate position. His topic has neither that exclusive definiteness

of content nor that position of hereditary prestige nor the general

acknowledgment of its essentially technical character, which belong

to astronomy. All men have their own psychological experiences and

notions about mental phenomena, but opinions concerning astronomy are

admitted to belong to those who have specially fitted themselves for

such pursuits.

There is thus a natural reason why it should be particularly

difficult in psychology to bring about a wholesome and right-minded

and helpful interest on the part of the layman,--a difficulty further

aggravated by the encouragement of well-meaning but logically

defective publications claiming to substantiate by quasi-scientific

methods the popular belief in the peculiar personal and mysterious

significance of events. In the face of this situation, the

professional psychologist cannot but take heed of the dangers which

imperil the true appreciation of his labors and his purpose, on the

part of the sympathetic layman. It is a matter of serious concern

that the methods of genuine psychological study, that the conditions

of advance in psychology, that the scope and nature of its problems

should be properly understood. It is matter of importance that the

dominant interest in psychology should centre about the normal use

and development of functions with respect to which psychology bears

a significant message for the regulation of life. The restoration

of a more desirable and progressive point of view requires some

examination of the false and misleading conceptions and alleged data,

which threaten to divert the sound and progressive interest from

its proper channels. It is not to be expected, when many who engage

public attention speak in favor of the importance of the unknown and

the mystic in psychology, when the twilight phenomena of mental life

are dwelt upon--and professionally as well as by amateurs--to the

neglect of the luminous daylight actualities, that the layman will

always correctly distinguish between what is authentically scientific

and in accordance with the advancing ideals of psychology, and what

is but the embodiment of unfortunate traditions, or the misguided

effort of the dilettante, or the perverse fallacy of the prepossessed

mystic. Fact and fable in psychology can only be separated by the

logical sifting of evidence, by the exercise of the prerogative of a

scientific point of view substantiated and fortified by the lessons

embodied in the history of rational opinion. The cause of truth and

the overthrow of error must sometimes be fought in drawn battle

and with the clash of arms, but are more frequently served by the

inauguration of an adherence to one side and the consequent desertion

of the other. Both procedures may be made necessary by the current

status of psychological discussion.

The present collection of essays is offered as a contribution

towards the realization of a sounder interest in and a more intimate

appreciation of certain problems upon which psychology has an

authoritative charge to make to the public jury. These essays take

their stand distinctively upon one side of certain issues, and as

determinately as the situation seems to warrant, antagonize contrary

positions; they aim to oppose certain tendencies and to support

others; to show that the sound and profitable interest in mental life

is in the usual and normal, and that the resolute pursuit of this

interest necessarily results in bringing the apparently irregular

phenomena of the mental world within the field of illumination of

the more familiar and the law-abiding. They further aim to illustrate

that misconceptions in psychology, as in other realms, are as often

the result of bad logic as of defective observation, and that both

are apt to be called into being by inherent mental prepossessions.

Some of the essays are more especially occupied with an analysis

of the defective logic which lends plausibility to and induces

credence in certain beliefs; others bring forward contributions to

an understanding of phenomena about which misconception is likely to

arise; still others are presented as psychological investigations

which, it is believed, command a somewhat general interest. The

prominence of the discussion of unfortunate and misleading tendencies

in psychological opinion should not be allowed to obscure the

more intrinsically important problems which in the main are of a

different, though possibly not of an unrelated character. I should be

defeating one of the purposes of these essays if, by the discussion

of mooted positions, I conveyed the notion that the problems thus

presented were naturally the fundamental ones about which advance

in psychology may be most promisingly centred. I deeply regret

that the dispossession of fable requires more resolute and more

elaborate exposition than the unfoldment of fact; but such is part

of the condition confronting the critical student of psychological

opinion. I must depend upon the reader to make due allowances for

this foreshortening of a portion of the composition, and so to bring

away a truer impression of the whole than the apparent perspective

suggests.

It would not be proper to claim for this budget of psychological

studies a pre-arranged unity of design or a serial unfoldment of

argument. They represent the unity of interest of a worker in a

special field, who has his favorite excursions and vistas, who at

times ventures away from the beaten paths and as frequently returns

along those already traversed, but with varying purposes, and

reaches the outlook from a different approach. There seems enough of

singleness of purpose in the several presentations to warrant their

inclusion in a single volume with a common name. There is enough

also to make it pertinent to explain that the occasional repetitions

of the same line of thought seemed less objectionable than frequent

reference from one essay to another.

All of the essays have been previously printed in the pages of

various scientific and popular magazines; and I have accordingly

to acknowledge the courtesy of the several publishers, which makes

possible their appearance in their present form. The essays have,

however, been subjected to a critical revision, in the hope of

increasing their acceptability in regard to form and material, and of

giving them a setting appropriate to the interests of the present-day

readers of psychological literature. Both in the selection of the

essays from a larger group of published studies, and in their

arrangement and elaboration, I have attempted to bear in mind the

several current interests in questions of this type, and to direct

these interests formatively along lines which seem to me fertile in

promise and sterling in value. In the recasting thus made necessary

it has come about (markedly in two cases, The Problems of Psychical

Research and The Logic of Mental Telegraphy) that some of the essays

have been entirely rewritten and bear only a generic resemblance to

their former appearance.

The several acknowledgments to be recorded are as follows: To the

"Popular Science Monthly," for permission to reprint The Psychology

of Deception (December, 1888), The Psychology of Spiritualism (April,

1889), A Study of Involuntary Movements (April and September, 1892),

The Mind's Eye (January, 1899), The Modern Occult (September,

1900); to the "New Princeton Review," for The Dreams of the Blind

(January, 1888); to "Harper's Monthly Magazine," for The Problems of

Psychical Research (June, 1889); to "Scribner's Magazine," for The

Logic of Mental Telegraphy (October, 1895); to the "Cosmopolitan,"

for Hypnotism and its Antecedents (February, 1896). The Natural

History of Analogy was delivered as a vice-presidential address

before the Section of Anthropology of the American Association for

the Advancement of Science, and was printed in its Proceedings, vol.

xl., 1891. The article, Mental Prepossession and Inertia, appeared

in a college publication of the University of Wisconsin, the "Aegis"

(April, 1897). I have also to acknowledge my indebtedness to Miss

Helen Keller for her very interesting contribution to my presentation

of the dreams of the blind. My most comprehensive obligation in the

preparation of the volume I have acknowledged upon the dedicatory

page.

JOSEPH JASTROW.

MADISON, WISCONSIN, November, 1900.