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THE
STORY OF THE MIND
BY
JAMES MARK BALDWIN
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1905
COPYRIGHT, 1898, 1902,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
* * * * *
PREFACE.
In this little book I have endeavoured to maintain the simplicity
which is the ideal of this series. It is more difficult, however, to
be simple in a topic which, even in its illustrations, demands of the
reader more or less facility in the exploration of his own mind. I am
persuaded that the attempt to make the matter of psychology more
elementary than is here done, would only result in making it untrue
and so in defeating its own object.
In preparing the book I have secured the right and welcomed the
opportunity to include certain more popular passages from earlier
books and articles. It is necessary to say this, for some people are
loath to see a man repeat himself. When one has once said a thing,
however, about as well as he can say it, there is no good reason that
he should be forced into the pretence of saying something different
simply to avoid using the same form of words a second time. The
question, of course, is as to whether he should not then resign
himself to keeping still, and letting others do the further speaking.
There is much to be said for such a course. But if one have the right
to print more severe and difficult things, and think he really has
something to say which would instruct the larger audience, it would
seem only fair to allow him to speak in the simpler way also, even
though all that he says may not have the merit of escaping the charge
of infringing his own copyrights!
I am indebted to the proprietors of the following magazines for the
use of such passages: The Popular Science Monthly, The Century
Magazine, The Inland Educator; and with them I also wish to thank The
Macmillan Company and the owners of Appletons' Universal Cyclopædia.
As to the scope and contents of the Story, I have aimed to include
enough statement of methods and results in each of the great
departments of psychological research to give the reader an
intelligent idea of what is being done, and to whet his appetite for
more detailed information. In the choice of materials I have relied
frankly on my own experience and in debatable matters given my own
opinions. This gives greater reality to the several topics, besides
making it possible, by this general statement, at once to acknowledge
it, and also to avoid discussion and citation of authorities in the
text. At the same time, in the exposition of general principles I have
endeavoured to keep well within the accepted truth and terminology of
psychology.
It will be remarked that in several passages the evolution theory is
adopted in its application to the mind. While this great theory can
not be discussed in these pages, yet I may say that, in my opinion,
the evidence in favour of it is about the same, and about as strong,
as in biology, where it is now made a presupposition of scientific
explanation. So far from being unwelcome, I find it in psychology no
less than in biology a great gain, both from the point of view of
scientific knowledge and from that of philosophical theory. Every
great law that is added to our store adds also to our conviction that
the universe is run through with Mind. Even so-called Chance, which
used to be the "bogie" behind Natural Selection, has now been found to
illustrate--in the law of Probabilities--the absence of Chance. As
Professor Pearson has said: "We recognise that our conception of
Chance is now utterly different from that of yore.... What we are to
understand by a chance distribution is one in accordance with law, and
one the nature of which can, for all practical purposes, be closely
predicted." If the universe be pregnant with purpose, as we all wish
to believe, why should not this purpose work itself out by an
evolution process under law?--and if under law, why not the law of
Probabilities? We who have our lives insured provide for our children
through our knowledge and use of this law; and our plans for their
welfare, in most of the affairs of life, are based upon the
recognition of it. Who will deny to the Great Purpose a similar
resource in producing the universe and in providing for us all?
I add in a concluding section on Literature some references to various
books in English, classified under the headings of the chapters of the
text. These works will further enlighten the reader, and, if he
persevere, possibly make a psychologist of him.
J. MARK BALDWIN.
PRINCETON, _April, 1898_.
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I. THE SCIENCE OF THE MIND--PSYCHOLOGY
II. WHAT OUR MINDS HAVE IN COMMON--INTROSPECTIVE PSYCHOLOGY
III. THE MIND OF THE ANIMAL--COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY
IV. THE MIND OF THE CHILD--CHILD PSYCHOLOGY
V. THE CONNECTION OF BODY WITH MIND--PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY--MENTAL
DISEASES
VI. HOW WE EXPERIMENT ON THE MIND--EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
VII. SUGGESTION AND HYPNOTISM
VIII. THE TRAINING OF THE MIND--EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
IX. THE INDIVIDUAL MIND AND SOCIETY--SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
X. THE GENIUS AND HIS ENVIRONMENT
XI. LITERATURE
* * * * *
LIST OF DIAGRAMS.
FIGURE
1. Origin of instinct by organic selection
2. Reflex and voluntary circuits
3. Outer surface of the left hemisphere of the brain
4. Inner surface or the right hemisphere of the brain
5. The speech zone (after Collins)
6. Mouth-key
7. Apparatus for optical experiment
8. Memory curves
* * * * *
THE STORY OF THE MIND
CHAPTER I.
THE SCIENCE OF THE MIND--PSYCHOLOGY,
Psychology is the science of the mind. It aims to find out all about
the mind--the whole story--just as the other sciences aim to find out
all about the subjects of which they treat--astronomy, of the stars;
geology, of the earth; physiology, of the body. And when we wish to
trace out the story of the mind, as psychology has done it, we find
that there are certain general truths with which we should first
acquaint ourselves; truths which the science has been a very long time
finding out, but which we can now realize without a great deal of
explanation. These general truths, we may say, are preliminary to the
story itself; they deal rather with the need of defining, first of
all, the subject or topic of which the story is to be told.
1. The first such truth is that the mind is not the possession of man
alone. Other creatures have minds. Psychology no longer confines
itself, as it formerly did, to the human soul, denying to the animals
a place in this highest of all the sciences. It finds itself unable to
require any test or evidence of the presence of mind which the animals
do not meet, nor does it find any place at which the story of the mind
can begin higher up than the very beginnings of life. For as soon as
we ask, "How much mind is necessary to start with?" we have to answer,
"Any mind at all"; and all the animals are possessed of some of the
actions which we associate with mind. Of course, the ascertainment of
the truth of this belongs--as the ascertainment of all the truths of
nature belongs--to scientific investigation itself. It is the
scientific man's rule not to assume anything except as he finds facts
to support the assumption. So we find a great department of psychology
devoted to just this question--i.e., of tracing mind in the animals
and in the child, and noting the stages of what is called its
"evolution" in the ascending scale of animal life, and its
"development" in the rapid growth which every child goes through in
the nursery. This gives us two chapters of the story of the mind.
Together they are called "Genetic Psychology," having two divisions,
"Animal or Comparative Psychology" and "Child Psychology."
2. Another general truth to note at the outset is this: that we are
able to get real knowledge about the mind. This may seem at first
sight a useless question to raise, seeing that our minds are, in the
thought of many, about the only things we are really sure of. But that
sort of sureness is not what science seeks. Every science requires
some means of investigation, some method of procedure, which is more
exact than the mere say-so of common sense; and which can be used over
and again by different investigators and under different conditions.
This gives a high degree of verification and control to the results
once obtained. The chemist has his acids, and reagents, and blowpipes,
etc.; they constitute his instruments, and by using them, under
certain constant rules, he keeps to a consistent method. So with the
physiologist; he has his microscope, his staining fluids, his means of
stimulating the tissues of the body, etc. The physicist also makes
much of his lenses, and membranes, and electrical batteries, and X-ray
apparatus. In like manner it is necessary that the psychologist should
have a recognised way of investigating the mind, which he can lay
before anybody saying: "There, you see my results, you can get them
for yourself by the same method that I used."
In fulfilling this requirement the psychologist resorts to two methods
of procedure. He is able to investigate the mind in two ways, which
are of such general application that anybody of sufficient training to
make scientific observations at all can repeat them and so confirm the
results. One of these is what is called Introspection. It consists in
taking note of one's own mind, as all sorts of changes are produced in
it, such as emotions, memories, associations of events now gone, etc.,
and describing everything that takes place. Other persons can repeat
the observations with their own minds, and see that what the first
reports is true. This results in a body of knowledge which is put
together and called "Introspective Psychology," and one chapter of the
story should be devoted to that.
Then the other way we have is that of experimenting on some one else's
mind. We can act on our friends and neighbours in various ways, making
them feel, think, accept, refuse this and that, and then observe how
they act. The differences in their action will show the differences in
the feelings, etc., which we have produced. In pursuing this method
the psychologist takes a person--called the "subject" or the
"re-agent"--into his laboratory, asks him to be willing to follow
certain directions carefully, such as holding an electric handle,
blowing into a tube, pushing a button, etc., when he feels, sees, or
hears certain things; this done with sufficient care, the results are
found recorded in certain ways which the psychologist has arranged
beforehand. This second way of proceeding gives results which are
gathered under the two headings "Experimental" and "Physiological
Psychology." They should also have chapters in our story.
3. There is besides another truth which the psychologist nowadays
finds very fruitful for his knowledge of the mind; this is the fact
that minds vary much in different individuals, or classes of
individuals. First, there is the pronounced difference between healthy
minds and diseased minds. The differences are so great that we have to
pursue practically different methods of treating the diseased, not
only as a class apart from the well minds--putting such diseased
persons into institutions--but also as differing from one another.
Just as the different forms of bodily disease teach us a great deal
about the body--its degree of strength, its forms of organization and
function, its limitations, its heredity, the inter-connection of its
parts, etc.--so mental diseases teach us much about the normal mind.
This gives another sphere of information which constitutes "Abnormal
Psychology" or "Mental Pathology."
[Illustration: PLATE I.]
[Illustration: PLATE II.]
There are also very striking variations between individuals even
within normal life; well people are very different from one another.
All that is commonly meant by character or temperament as
distinguishing one person from another is evidence of these
differences. But really to know all about mind we should see what its
variations are, and endeavour to find out why the variations exist.
This gives, then, another topic, "Individual or Variational
Psychology." This subject should also have notice in the story.
4. Allied with this the demand is made upon the psychologist that he
show to the teacher how to train the mind; how to secure its
development in the individual most healthfully and productively, and
with it all in a way to allow the variations of endowment which
individuals show each to bear its ripest fruit. This is "Educational
or Pedagogical Psychology."
5. Besides all these great undertakings of the psychologist, there is
another department of fact which he must some time find very fruitful,
although as yet he has not been able to investigate it thoroughly: he
should ask about the place of the mind in the world at large. If we
seek to know what the mind has done in the world, what a wealth of
story comes to us from the very beginnings of history! Mind has done
all that has been done: it has built human institutions, indited
literature, made science, discovered the laws of Nature, used the
forces of the material world, embodied itself in all the monuments
which stand to testify to the presence of man. What could tell us more
of what mind is than this record of what mind has done? The
ethnologists are patiently tracing the records left by early man in
his utensils, weapons, clothing, religious rites, architectural
remains, etc., and the anthropologists are seeking to distinguish the
general and essential from the accidental and temporary in all the
history of culture and civilization. They are making progress very
slowly, and it is only here and there that principles are being
discovered which reveal to the psychologist the necessary modes of
action and development of the mind. All this comes under the head of
"Race Psychology."
6. Finally, another department, the newest of all, investigates the
action of minds when they are thrown together in crowds. The animals
herd, the insects swarm, most creatures live in companies; they are
gregarious, and man no less is social in his nature. So there is a
psychology of herds, crowds, mobs, etc., all put under the heading of
"Social Psychology." It asks the question, What new phases of the mind
do we find when individuals unite in common action?--or, on the other
hand, when they are artificially separated?
We now have with all this a fairly complete idea of what The Story of
the Mind should include, when it is all told. Many men are spending
their lives each at one or two of these great questions. But it is
only as the results are all brought together in a consistent view of
that wonderful thing, the mind, that we may hope to find out all that
it is. We must think of it as a growing, developing thing, showing its
stages of evolution in the ascending animal scale, and also in the
unfolding of the child; as revealing its nature in every change of our
daily lives which we experience and tell to one another or find
ourselves unable to tell; as allowing itself to be discovered in the
laboratory, and as willing to leave the marks of its activity on the
scientist's blackened drum and the dial of the chronoscope; as subject
to the limitations of health and disease, needing to be handled with
all the resources of the asylum, the reformatory, the jail, as well as
with the delicacy needed to rear the sensitive girl or to win the love
of the bashful maid; as manifesting itself in the development of
humanity from the first rude contrivances for the use of fire, the
first organizations for defence, and the first inscriptions of picture
writing, up to the modern inventions in electricity, the complex
constitutions of government, and the classic productions of literary
art; and as revealing its possibilities finally in the brutal acts of
the mob, the crimes of a lynching party, and the deeds of collective
righteousness performed by our humane and religious societies.
It would be impossible, of course, within the limits of this little
volume, to give even the main results in so many great chapters of
this ambitious and growing science. I shall not attempt that; but the
rather select from the various departments certain outstanding results
and principles. From these as elevations the reader may see the
mountains on the horizon, so to speak, which at his leisure, and with
better guides, he may explore. The choice of materials from so rich a
store has depended also, as the preface states, on the writer's
individual judgment, and it is quite probable that no one will find
the matters altogether wisely chosen. All the great departments now
thus briefly described, however, are represented in the following
chapters.