Psychology for beginners

Psychology for Beginners

Copyright, 1924,
Haldeman-Julius Company

The word “Psychology” originally meant the study of the soul. The human soul was thought to be a sort of entity, exhibiting qualities or “faculties,” which became manifest to us as various psychological manifestations. The last century saw the gradual development of a “psychology without a soul”—a psychology based upon the study of mind, as manifested in human beings; it therefore became the study of consciousness.

Until relatively recently, the word psychology meant only this. Within the past few years, however, the scope of this science has been enormously increased. When we speak of Psychology, we no longer mean, merely, the adult, human, normal consciousness. We must define now our terms more accurately and in greater detail. We have psychologies—just as we no longer have “insanity,” but insanities. The science has been enlarged. We know animal psychology—which deals with the mind of lower animals—extending all the way down the scale to the simplest organisms. We have Educational psychology, which deals with the psychology of childhood, and the best methods of training the young mind and developing it. We have individual psychology, dealing with the relationship of the individual to his environment, and going into the details of his own mental make-up. We have social psychology, which deals with the instincts and desires of man, as related to the society in which he dwells. We have abnormal psychology, dealing with the varied derangements, abnormalities and defects of the human mind. We have dream psychology, especially studied by psycho-analysis. We also have the psychology of the crowd, so different from the individual in the crowd. We have the psychology of the subconscious mind—that vast realm which was practically a closed book to the psychologists of the last century. We have Oriental psychology, which is entirely different from our own, in many respects. We have supernormal psychology, which deals with certain alleged “psychical” phenomena, and endeavors to explain them along psychological lines. We have psychology of religion, history, politics, etc.