But in this whole development, until yesterday, the curious fact
remained that it was going on without any narrow contact with practical
life; it was a science for the scientist and measured by its practical
achievements in daily life, it seemed barren and unproductive.
Psychology was studied as palaeontology and Sanscrit were studied,
without any direct relation to the life which surrounds us. And yet
after all it deals with the mental facts which have to enter into every
one of our practical deeds, if we are to consider mental life from a
psychological point of view. The psychologists were certainly not to be
blamed for sticking to their theoretical interests. More than that,
they were certainly justified in their reluctance, as everything was in
the making, and incomplete theories can easily do more harm than good.
But slowly a certain consolidation has set in; large sets of facts have
been secured, and psychology seems better prepared to become serviceable
to the practical tasks. On the other hand, it has been noticeable for
some time that not a few of the psychological results have gone over
into unprofessional hands and have been thrown on the market places and
have been brought into many a home where no one knew how to deal with
them rightly. Thus the need seems urgent that the psychologists give up
their over-reserved attitude and recognize it as their duty to serve the
needs of the community.
It is not sufficient for that end, simply to take odds and ends of
psychology and to hand them over to anyone who can see some use for
them. We must have a systematic scientific work done for the special
purpose of adjusting psychological knowledge to the definite practical
tasks and of examining the psychological facts with that practical end
in view. A science must be developed which is related to psychology as
engineering is related to physics and chemistry. Just as the
technological laboratories of the engineer bring out many new problems
which the physicist would never have approached, in the same way we may
expect that special institutions for applied psychology will shape the
psychological inquiry in a new way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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