The upshot of the evidence, then, is about as follows: Psychoanalysis
has extended in important ways our knowledge of the ramifications of
the sex impulses and of the impulse to egoistic dominance; it has
increased our knowledge of the motivation of much that mistakenly,
through “rationalization,” offers itself as reasonable conduct; it has
put us upon our guard against a considerable range of self-deceptions;
but it has not proved the actual existence of the diabolism that is
pictured in “the Unconscious.” And let it be remembered that, in front
of the patient whose mind is supposed to be a den of wild beasts,
sits the psychoanalyst himself, a self-controlled, benevolent, and
high-minded man. Over against the theoretical Unconscious let us place
the certainly actual honor of the psychiatrist in his handling of his
patient--scrupulous honor in a situation that brings to the fore the
most enticing emotions and impulses.
A word should be said concerning the bearing of intelligence-tests upon
our knowledge of the motives of men. There is a popular tendency, which
is not altogether absent from academic circles, to jump at conclusions
concerning motivation from the results of experiments upon something
else. The adjectives “superior” and “inferior,” applied primarily to
levels of intelligence, come almost insensibly to be a designation
of levels of manhood or of decency in general. Now, the most that
can be said as yet concerning the interrelations between the various
desirable and undesirable factors of personal make-up is that, on the
whole, the more desirable tend to bunch together, and the undesirable
likewise tend to go in bunches. It cannot be said, however, that there
is only one worthwhile type, and that the core of this type is superior
intelligence. We do not yet know just what this “intelligence” that we
have been measuring is, nor what it guarantees at its various levels.
It is certain that achievement depends upon other qualities also, so
that failure may attend a high IQ, and success may be won by steady
and persistent employment of an intelligence distinctly lower. Wisdom
and goodness and efficiency have other foundations in addition to
some as yet undetermined degree of intelligence. Further, it appears
that within the general concept, “intelligence,” we are required to
distinguish between types. There is, for example, in addition to
the abstract or conceptual type that is most cultivated in schools,
a mechanical type of intelligence, very likely there is a social
intelligence, and there may be others. We do not yet know, except in
the vaguest way, how these varieties of intelligence are dynamically
related to the requirements of wise living, either individual or social.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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