The Third Degree: A Narrative of Metropolitan LifeKlein, Charles
General
The Third Degree: A Narrative of Metropolitan Life
Klein, Charles
City and town life -- Fiction
"We are just waking up," he replied quickly. "People are beginning to
look upon psychology seriously. Up to comparatively recently the layman
has regarded psychology as the domain of the philosopher and the
dreamer. It did not seem possible that it could ever be applied to our
practical everyday life, but of late we have made remarkable strides.
Although it is a comparatively new science, you will probably be
astonished to learn that there are to-day in the United States fifty
psychological laboratories. That is to say, workshops fully
equipped with every device known for the probing of the human brain.
In my laboratory in California alone I have as many as twenty rooms
hung with electric wires and equipped with all the necessary
instruments--chronoscopes, kymographs, tachistoscopes, and ergographs,
instruments which enable us to measure and record the human brain as
accurately as the Bertillon system."
"Really, you astonish me!" exclaimed the judge. "This is most
interesting. Think of laboratories solely devoted to delving into
mysteries of the human brain! It is wonderful!"
He was silent for a moment, then he said:
"It is quite plain, I think, that psychology can prove most useful in
medicine. It is, I take it, the very foundation of mental healing, but
what else would it do for humanity? For instance, can it help me, the
lawyer?"
Dr. Bernstein smiled.
"You gentlemen of the law have always scoffed at the very suggestion of
bringing psychology to your aid, but just think, sir, how enormously it
might aid you in cross-examining a witness. You can tell with almost
scientific accuracy if the witness is telling lies or the truth, and the
same would be clear to the judge and the jury. Just think how your
powers would be increased if by your skill in psychological observation
you could convince the jury that your client, who was about to be
convicted on circumstantial evidence alone, was really innocent of the
crime of which he was charged. Why, sir, the road which psychology opens
up to the lawyer is well-nigh boundless. Don't you use the Bertillon
system to measure the body? Don't you rely on thumb prints to identify
the hand? How do you know that we psychologists are not able to-day to
test the individual differences of men?"
"In a word," laughed the judge, "you mean that any one trained to read
my mind can tell just what's passing in my brain?"
"Precisely," replied the doctor with a smile; "the psychologist can tell
with almost mathematical accuracy just how your mental mechanism is
working. I admit it sounds uncanny, but it can be proved. In fact, it
has been proved, time and time again."
Alicia came up and took the doctor's arm.
"Oh, Dr. Bernstein," she protested, "I can't allow the judge to
monopolize you in this way. Come with me. I want to introduce you to a
most charming woman who is dying to meet you. She is perfectly crazy on
psychology."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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