Scientists at one time used to exercise--not their powers of observation, but their verbal ingenuity--upon a set of bars of their own which they called the psycho-neural parallel, saying that inasmuch as two parallel lines can never touch, so neurology and psychology, nerves and mind, matter and the immaterial, can never influence one another. According to this theory, there were two eternally separate twins dancing along, each on its own line of the parallel, forever aping each other as our reflections ape us in a mirror. And it was strictly forbidden to cross the track! The materialists have repealed this “law,” on the ground that there is no psychic rail out of which to make the right hand parallel. Others would repeal it, saying that there is no left-hand rail. The rails are there, nevertheless. What is not there nor anywhere is the prohibition against crossing. The idea that the immaterial cannot influence the material because spirit and matter are things of different orders comes from the same sort of logic as would maintain that waves cannot rock a boat because wood and water, too, are of different orders of things. But, think you, this is merely human experience and common sense, not science? That there is no Scientific Psyche? That the idea of there being somebody at home within us is a sweet but forbidden doctrine; something forever outlawed by the experimental method? On the contrary, it was the experimental method which first made us aware of this state of things. And the experimental method in its most modern, scientific form, politely lifts its hat to the Housekeeper whenever she appears. It was only during a decade or two--the decade or two when most of our psychologists were young and learned all they ever did learn of physics--that science forgot her manners. If you want to be in style, do not continue to wear your hat in the house. In the best circles it is no longer done. We are not ready yet, however, to enter the best circles. We have first to pass through the fires of passion, of madness and dreams. FOOTNOTES: [32] My quotations are from the edition of 1925. [33] _Harper’s Magazine_, August, 1927. [34] “Outline of Psychology,” p. 446. [35] _Ibid._, p. 439. [36] _Ibid._, p. 446. [37] _Ibid._, p. 440. [38] “Outline of Psychology,” pp. 140 and 141. [39] _Ibid._, p. 418. [40] “Outline of Psychology,” p. 274. [41] _Ibid._, p. 418. [42] _Ibid._, p. 418. [43] _Op. cit._ [44] “Outline of Psychology,” p. 317. [45] “Outline of Psychology,” p. 18. [46] “The Behaviorist Looks at Instincts,” _Harper’s Magazine_, July, 1927. CHAPTER IV A SLAVE TO DREAMS 1. THE CONFESSIONS OF SIGMUND FREUD