PSYCHOLOGY 373 PSYCHOTHERAPY used with success in the milder forms of nervous affections. PSYCHOLOGY, the science of mental phenomena. Opinion is far from unani- mous on many of the most important points of psychological doctrine, espe- cially on such points as involve a philo- sophical view of the nature of mind. Thus, in the first place, we have the view that psychology deals with the facts of the conscious mind which, when knowing, feeling, or striving, is always conscious of itself as knowing, feel- ing, or striving — *. e., is self-conscious. But it has many difficulties. We can hardly ascribe self-consciousness to the lower animals or to very young chil- dren, and yet some kind of mental life clearly belongs to them ; so that it would seem that mental life and self-conscious- iiess cannot be identified. Further, many psychologists (including Hamilton) are of opinion that there are mental phenom- ena unaccompanied by self-consciousness even in mature human life. In the second place, a materialistic view of mind is connected with the at- tempt to make brain physiology play the part of a psychology. It is plain, how- ever, that a sensation or a feeling of pleasure or pain is a fact of an entirely different order from a neural disturbance. The one may accompany or even cause the other (or both may be only different aspects of the same ultimate existence), but the characteristic nature of the men- tal fact is not reached by the most thorough investigation of its physiolog- ical conditions, while the latter are in many cases much more obscure than the phenomena they are adduced to explain. In the third place, an attempt has been made (sometimes apart from any philo- sophical hypothesis as to the nature of mind) to start with certain mental facts — called presentations, sensations, or feelings — regarded as ultimate or inde- pendent, and to trace the laws and man- ner of their combination and succession. This method has been worked with excel- lent result by the English Associationist psychologists. By a similar method, and by treating presentations as forces, Her- bart and his followers have elaborated a mechanism of the mind and reduced psychology to mathematical form. The difficulty of this mode of conceiving mind is to explain how a series of sensations — on any interaction of presentations — can generate the consciousness of a self persisting through changing states; and even to give any meaning to sensation or presentation without regarding it as ex- perienced by or presented to mind. On these grrounds many psychologists, while influenced by the scientific method of the Associationists and of Herbart, hold that presentation or sensation is only con- ceivable as belonging to a subject or mind. So far, mind must be assumed by the psychologist as implied in the experi- ence of which he has to trace the develop- ment. This subject, or mind as the con- dition of experience, may be admitted to elude psychological observation. Consult "Psychological Principles" Ward (1918); "Psychology of Peoples" Le Bon (1898) ; "The Mind and Its Ed- ucation" Betts (1916); "Educational Psychology" (1913-1914). PSYCHOTHERAPY, treatment of disease by the application of mental in- fluence. The treatment takes various forms and the conditions of its efficacy depend on the psychical character of the disease and the responsiveness of the symptoms to psychical remedies. Since, however, there is hardly a malady that has not its psychical factors psychother- apy can often supplement the work of ordinary treatment even in cases where it cannot effect a cure. It is estimated that nearly half the number of known diseases have a psychical origin, though, on the other hand, every illness has its physical basis also. The mental influ- ence has to be of a character to fit the case. In the case of children the remedy is of the simplest and a mere prohibition or command or word of flattery and en- couragement may have its due effect. There is no limit to the tricks and arti- fices that may be used from harshness to sympathy, from bullying to wheedling, from playing on prepossessions and per- sonal weaknesses to philosophical argu- ment : all have their place in dealing with the nervously afflicted. The skill of the practitioner will be shown in his capacity for trained observation of the connection between cause and for applying his sug- gestive influences accordingly. ^ Psychotherapeutic treatment in prac- tice falls into a number of divisions, of which the most important fall under the heads of hypnosis, suggestion, re-educa- tion, and psychoanalysis. These meth- ods of treatment interlap more or less. Hypnosis, as here used, is based largely on the influence of suggestion, seeking means of fixing certain ameliorative ideas in the patient's mind, while his will and consciousness ai'e held in re- straint by conditions such as hypnotic sleep. Under the heading of sugges- tions are included methods of inducing desirable emotional conditions by in- fluences beyond the cognizance of the patient. Re-education has as its purpose the mental reconstruction of the patient by clarifying his mind and showing him what he is capable of performing and
