In the first chapter is discussed the practical importance of "Play," not
only in offering the opportunity for sensory, central, and motor development
in the child, but for releasing the broader life energies of the adult whose
mind is confined by specializing work. It is shown that the fundamental
motives of the play life are to be found in religion.
The next three chapters, on "Serviceable Memory," "Mental Efficiency," and
"Mental Health," are full of sound practical advice. The first contains a
clear and attractive presentation of the principles of remembering, so
arranged as to exemplify the rules which it inculcates. The second
emphasizes the importance of the wave form of attention in all mental work,
the superiority of efferent to afferent response as an educational process,
and the acquirement of mastery by a transfer of control from higher to lower
mental levels. There is also good counsel with regard to the best time and
manner in which to rest, although the author's deductions from the
physiological "curve of sleep" appear somewhat hasty. "Mental Health" is
defined in terms of our mental "members" in the classical way, and the "Ten
Maxims of Wise Living," which are given, are selected from the history of
moral philosophy rather than from current psychotherapeutic results.
The chapter on "Mental Law" is the most interesting one for the theoretical
psychologist, and discusses in a general but illuminating manner, principles
of perception and of perseveration which are of interest to the
psychological psychiatrist. The chapter on "Law in Illusion" seems
disproportionately long, but gives an interesting description and analysis
of three different types of illusions: those based on "units of direction,"
the over-estimation of "cylinder height," and upon the "size-weight" error.
In connection with the second, the results of original investigations in the
author's laboratory are presented. It is shown that a knowledge of the
complex but definite principles underlying illusions can be made practically
serviceable, for example, in tests of mental normality.
The final chapter deals with a specific illustrative problem in "Mental
Measurement," viz. the determination of a subject's fitness for a musical
career. A detailed analysis of the problem is offered, and it is shown that
the elemental questions involved can be answered by the methods of the
psychological laboratory, but that these answers require expert
interpretation before they can be made practically applicable.
The author's style is engaging and clear. LEONARD THOMPSON TROLAND.
AN OUTLINE OF PSYCHOBIOLOGY. By Knight Dunlap, Associate Professor of
Psychology in the Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins
Press, 1914. Pp. 121, octavo; illustrated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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