Dynamic Psychology
REVIEWS AND CRITICISM.
- Author:
Robert Sessions Woodworth, Ph.D. New York:
Columbia University rress, lyis. rp. ZiU.
These are the Jesup Lectures for 1916-17, given at the American Museum of Natural History with the cooperation of Columbia University, and reproduced in book form with some enlargements and modifications. Lecture one is a sketch of “The Modern Movement in Psychology.” How far from modern is the psychology contemplated by Dr Woodworth may be seen in the fact that his history ends with William James’s “Principles of Psychology,” published in 1890. Clinical psychology is not mentioned, yet clinical psychology is twenty-one years old this summer, and psychological clinics have been established in the foremost institutions all over the country. There has been one in Dr Woodworth’s own University, and several in New York City, but he never once makes an admission of their existence.
In chapter two, “The Problems and Methods of Psychology,” Dr Woodworth spends some time upon an analysis of behavioristic psychology, and of the points at issue between the behaviorist and the introspectionist, dismissing them both with the remark, “The majority of psychologists are disposed to give their blessing to both groups of enthusiasts, and to hope that each group may meet with great success in attacking its chosen field. Meanwhile, it seems that neither party has rightly envisaged the real problem of psychology.” This leads him to introduce his theory of dynamic psychology, with its concepts of “drive and mechanism.” The analogy with mechanics is tempting, if not new. When worked out in some detail, lucidity fails to appear. “‘Drive’ as we have thus been led to conceive of it in the simpler sort of case,” explains Dr. Woodworth, “is not essentially distinct from ‘mechanism.’ The drive is a mechanism already aroused and thus in a position to furnish stimulation to other mechanisms. Any mechanism might be a drive.’ “
Chapter three discusses the “Native Equipment of Man,” particularly his emotions and instincts. The James-Lange theory is compared with Cannon’s recent studies and with McDougall’s “Social Psychology.” Dr Woodworth takes issue with all these theories, but especially with McDougall’s, on the ground of what he calls “native capacities,” which “differ from instincts in that they do not provide ready-made reactions to stimuli.” The “native gift amounts to a specific interest and an ability to learn specific things.” … “The instincts are adaptations to very general features of the environment, while the capacities are adaptations to more special features… . Now there is no obvious reason in the nature of things why the more general adaptations should have the character of drives while the more specialized adaptations should exist simply as passive mechanisms.”
The five succeeding chapters continue the elaboration of Dr Woodworth’s psychology. Feeblemindedness is dealt with in three pages of the chapter on “Abnormal Behavior,” and is defined as a lack of intelligence! “According to the degree of deficiency of intelligence, the individual is classed as an idiot, an imbecile, or a moron, the last class consisting of those whose intelligence is not far below the level that might be called low normal.” The concept of feeblemindedness as an insufficiency of social’ behavior, has yet to dawn upon this author. With each chapter the conviction grows upon the reader that here is a time-honored psychology, translated into speciously new terms. Terminology aside, it is evident that this is only another phase of what William James wittily labelled “brass instrument psychology,” with the instruments cunningly concealed from the public. A. T.
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