CHAPTER II
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTION OF INSANITY
It is necessary that we should clearly understand what is meant by the psychological conception of insanity, the relation it bears to the physiological conception, and the nature of its aims and methods. The consideration of these problems involves some preliminary acquaintance with the fundamental propositions upon which modern science is based, and inevitably leads to questions which are, strictly speaking, beyond the limits of our subject. But as no clear thinking in psychology is possible unless precise notions about these elcmentary matters have been previously acquired, we may perhaps be pardoned for temporarily trespassing upon the domain of philosophy.
It has been pointed out that modern science is attacking the problem of insanity along two different routes. The psychological conception treats the phenomena as states of mind, whereas the physiological conception treats them merely as manifestations of changes occurring in the brain. Now in this statement we are confronted with certain terms which, although loosely and erroneously used in ordinary language, have nevertheless a precise and
