The contrast between the old and the new psychology appears strongest
in their conceptions of the ego. The former believes that the ego is
“the thing in itself” of man’s soul and takes it to be the centre of
all psychical phenomena, while the latter looks upon the ego-idea as
one idea among many other co-ordinated ideas and considers the centre
of consciousness as the strongest feeling at a given time, which as
such naturally predominates over and eclipses the other feelings of the
organism.
The new psychology brings about a change of standpoint similar to
that effected by the Copernican system in astronomy. In astronomy
the geo-centric, and in psychology the ego-centric standpoint had to
be abandoned. And all things seem to be upset to those who are still
accustomed to the old conception. To them the physical and moral
world-conceptions appear to become impossible. If the new view were
correct, so they imagine, the entire universe would break to pieces. All
our modes of speech are formed in accord with the old view. We speak of
sunset and sunrise, and so in our daily conversation the little pronoun
“I” plays a part which makes it seem as if the ego-idea were the centre
of all soul-life and as if this “I” were the active agent in all acts of
willing and doing.
The advantage of the Copernican system lies in this, that we can think
of the motions of the sun and the planets in a systematic and unitary
conception without being either involved in contradictions or obliged to
invent mysterious qualities in the stars for explaining the velocities,
directions, or other phenomena of the celestial bodies. The most
important advantage however is the practical applicability of the new
theory.
The old theory of the soul necessarily leads to mysticism. Fictitious
facts of a transcendent character must be invented in addition to the
facts observed, in order to explain the latter. The new theory after
abandoning the ego-centric standpoint of the thing in itself of a soul
shows the facts of psychic life in an harmonious and unitary conception.
All facts agree among themselves and we are not in need of supplementing
them with mysterious inventions. It must be emphasised, at the same time,
that the new conception throws a new light upon ethics; it shows the
error and perversity of all egotism, for it would be a mistake to act as
if the ego were really the centre of soul-life.
Here the new psychology comes in contact with religion. What is the
practical aim of all the great religions of the world but a surrender
of the ego, a renunciation of the self as the centre of our being, and
the acceptance of the moral law as the regulative power of our actions?
The new psychology gives a justification and a scientific explanation
of Christian ethics while the latter from the standpoint of the old
psychology necessarily appears as mystical and supernatural.