Psychology however in the strict sense is extremely difficult to define.
Those who describe it as the “science of mind,” the “phenomenology of
consciousness,” seem to give it a wider scope than they really mean. The
psychologist of the straiter sect tends, on the other hand, to carry us
beyond mind and consciousness altogether. His, it has been said, is a
psychology without a Psyché. For him Mind, Soul, and Consciousness are
only current and convenient names to designate the field, the ground on
which the phenomena he observes are supposed to transact themselves. But
they must not on any account interfere with the operations; any more than
Nature in general may interfere with strictly physical inquiries, or Life
and vital force with the theories of biology. The so-called Mind is only
to be regarded as a stage on which certain events represent themselves. In
this field, or on this stage, there are certain relatively ultimate
elements, variously called ideas, presentations, feelings, or states of
consciousness. But these elements, though called ideas, must not be
supposed more than mechanical or dynamical elements; consciousness is
rather their product, a product which presupposes certain operations and
relations between them. If we are to be strictly scientific, we must, it
is urged, treat the factors of consciousness as not themselves conscious:
we must regard them as quasi-objective, or in abstraction from the
consciousness which surveys them. The Ego must sink into a mere receptacle
or arena of psychic event; its independent meaning or purport is to be
ignored, as beside the question.