Abstract
THE author's claim in the sub-title is, on the whole, justified. The social and educational bearings of the subject are kept in the foreground; technicalities and controversial or metaphysical problems are, for the most part, avoided. On these terms, as stated in the preface, one is not led to expect more than one finds-a presentation that includes much of the newer teaching but does not break touch with older methods of treatment. The trouble, perhaps, is that if “metaphysical” problems be avoided the result is likely to be an emulsion in which the drops do not combine though they may be swallowed together. If we elect to follow M. Bergson and call the great life-urge the???? vital, the concept of nerve-force or neurokyme and that of unconscious cerebration can scarcely coalesce therewith; and if the nerve-force be said to leap a microscopic gap at the synapse, and if it be also said that at each of these gaps, a choice presents itself, the two statements do not seem to be “metaphysically” in part materia. The author is doubtless not less aware than any of his readers of the difficulties that must arise if the more fundamental issues be passed over. For the most part he gives a reading of the facts which will be found sufficiently free from extravagance as to be spoken of as conservative.
The Psychology of Thought and Feeling: A Conservative Interpretation of Results in Modern Psychology.
Dr.
C.
Platt
By. Pp. x + 290. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 7s. 6d. net.
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The Psychology of Thought and Feeling: A Conservative Interpretation of Results in Modern Psychology . Nature 111, 12 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/111012a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/111012a0