Sociology has suffered because of this inevitable bias. In our present study it is natural that our sympathy reactions should be especially strong. "_Quamquam animus meminisse horret, incipiam_" must be our motto. As students we must now endeavor to dissociate ourselves from them, and look upon the stricken Canadian city with all a chemist's patient detachment. In a field of science where the prospect of large-scale experimental progress is remote, we must learn well when the abnormal reveals itself in great tragedies and when social processes are seen magnified by a thousand diameters. Only thus can we hope for advances that will endure. [37] Ratshesky, A. C., "Report of Halifax Relief Expedition," _The State_ (Boston, 1918), p. 11. [38] Keller, A. G., "Sociology and Science," _The Nation_ (N. Y., May 4, 1916), vol. 102, no. 2653, p. 275. In this spirit then let us watch the slow process of the reorganization of Halifax, and see in it a picture of society itself as it reacts under the stimulus of catastrophe, and adjusts itself to the circumstantial pressure of new conditions. Before doing so, however, we shall pause, in the next chapter, to glance at a number of social phenomena which should be recorded and examined in the light of social psychology. But we must not lose the relationship of each chapter to our major thesis. It is sufficient for our purpose if thus far it has been shown that at Halifax the shock resulted in disintegration of social institutions, dislocation of the usual methods of social control and dissolution of the customary; that through the catastrophe the community was thrown into the state of flux which, as was suggested in the introduction, is the logical and natural prerequisite for social change; and finally that the shock was of a character such as "to affect all individuals alike at the same time," and to induce that degree of fluidity most favorable to social change. CHAPTER II CATASTROPHE AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Shock reaction--Hallucination--Primitive instincts--Crowd psychology--Phenomena of emotion--How men react when bereft completely--Post-catastrophic phenomena--Human nature in the absence of repression by conventionality, custom and law--Fatigue and the human will--The stimuli of heroism--Mutual aid. Social Psychology is a subject of primary importance to the student of society. Like Sociology itself its field is far from being exhausted. One looks in vain for a treatment of disaster psychology. In such a study the diverse phenomena involved would be of interest to the psychologist. Their effects in retarding or promoting social organization would concern the sociologist. With such possible effects in mind we are now to proceed to an examination of the major subjective reactions as they were to be seen in the Halifax catastrophe.