The Psychology of Special Abilities and Disabilities
- Author:
Augusta F. Bronner,
Fh.D. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1917. Pp. viii ?+? ^t>y.
Dr Bronner opens her preface with an amazing statement. She says* nowhere else have special defects been outlined and nowhere can one find even enumeration of the types of variation that are practically important.” Leaving out of account the enormous literature on special defects of the language function aphasia?one has only to take down the files of the Psychological Index to find abundant proof that Dr Bronner’s view of the matter is uniquely limited. She attempts in her book “to discuss practical aspects of special abilities and disabilities, to offer in detail methods of attacking problem-cases, and to present various types, both (a) of particular disabilities in those who have normal general ability, and (b) of particular abilities in those who are below normal in general capacities.” When she goes on the say that “the problems we are here concerned with are those that arise because of lack of recognition of special abilities and special disabilities?problems even outlined, so far as we know, only by Healy,” we-find ourselves again in the presence of the serious limitations of the work.
The chapter on differential diagnosis is particularly weak. Take for example a loose statement like this: “She had been tested in several other laboratories, in one of which she was diagnosed as feebleminded, a diagnosis made, no doubt, without any recognition of the fact that she was unmistakably a case of hysteria and that therefore actual test results required interpretation in the light of this fact.” Here the author appears to be overlooking two important principles of diagnosis, (1) the social criterion of feeblemindedness, and (2) the recent work of Bolton who classes hysteria with other forms of amentia. Again she makes a statement which is more than loose, when she says, “Aphasia, alexia, agraphia, word-deafness, and other such disturbances are, as defined by neurologists, always due to brain lesion and not to innate defect; they involve loss or impairment of power that once existed.” Such a misstatement can only rest upon an insufficient acquaintance with the authorities.
Understanding Dr Bronner’s attitude toward the many workers who have preceded her in her chosen field, we shall not wonder at the absence of a bibliography in her volume. Her forty-six case histories are well presented, especially as regards the enumeration of formal tests. Nevertheless they are not subjected to a searching analysis. The method which was promised in the preface in not forthcoming, and the conclusions do not always seem to be supported by the available facts. No one will differ with Dr Bronner’s opinion that the clinical psychologist “must have the ability to analyze the results.” But because her book has in it so little of psychological analysis, it does not detach itself in any distinctive way from the other compilations of case histories which have preceded it. T.
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