The Substance of Self
THE SUBSTANCE OF SELF HP HE business of getting one's self analyzed has be-*- come popular. Some people have faith in the stars; and the eagerness for horoscopes has increased so much that one...
...Cattell lie very deep...
...The response was so generous that lack of time prevented his interviewing more than a fraction of those who came...
...We believe these mediaeval practices resulted from a thorough conviction that the human personality is not a dot, or a number, or a brass check, but a distinct and treasurable reality entitled to share in the creative expression of the common life...
...It was only natural that the whole problem should come up for consideration at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science...
...Cattell be carried out, the habit of mere quantitative estimate of workers as "cogs in the machine" would slowly disappear...
...In every field of activity, from the use of the pick and shovel, of typewriter and ledger, through the factory and office, to the organization of the work of the Executive or the Congress of the nation, investigations might be made, which, if put into effect, would add from 10 to 100 percent to effective productivity and lessen to an equal extent effort and fatigue...
...Science might be able to afford accurate information to those who now seek help from amateurish quacks and sham methods...
...The implications of such study as that advocated by Dr...
...Were sons in the habit of taking up their father's task, less mystification would lie in the future...
...Our modern education problem is to get rid of teaching habits which force conveniently arranged adult abstractions upon children and young people—a problem which we are trying to solve in the very fashion of the mediaeval popular education, which always and everywhere indulged in the concrete and the visual...
...and he found that the anxiety and interest of these mere youngsters were as astonishing as any phenomena he had ever witnessed...
...and the eagerness for horoscopes has increased so much that one American city reports an average of two astrologists for every one thousand of the population...
...Professional advisers on character have set themselves up in polished offices and employed salesmen to drum up a booming trade...
...Naturally, the thing in which science is interested must be the individual as he is, rather than the individual as he ought to be...
...uThe British Institute of Psychology," said Dr...
...The strongest of all arguments for God is the everlasting need of God...
...It means that we are prepared to recognize once more the personality as a matter of basic importance in the conduct of life...
...Modernity will stay, at least a while...
...Were girls even normally sure of marriage and a domestic life, they would not be so dizzy with indecision...
...In a small mid-western city, a gentleman who for many years had been employment manager for a large corporation, advertised his readiness to give advice to high-school boys and girls...
...In so far as the discipline of character is concerned, formulae arrived at in the laboratory always will lack the richness of complex living...
...Growth of soul depends upon the development of the spiritual senses—and this most fundamental of educative processes must remain the task of religion and, to a lesser degree, of literature and the arts...
...But these are provisos which no possible agency can introduce...
...Could the task suggested by Dr...
...And in a recent issue of the New York Times, Mr...
...James McKeen Cattell, of New York, "has been successful in securing the cooperation of workers and has in some directions increased production by 40 percent with decreased fatigue...
...Now it is easy to criticize the whole affair, but it does respond to a very direct need of the time...
...But the prospect for a more definite attentiveness to the personality of men and women offers a resplendent opportunity for cooperation between religion, science, and the arts, for elimination of misery and increased contentment...
...The point of view thus set forth is worthy of the deepest attention...
...Perhaps we are paying a heavy fine for nomadic tendencies inculcated by a long national indulgence in adventure...
...Thomas Jesse Jones declared that "a true preparation for life" must depend upon "a consciousness of the community" —thus repeating for us a lesson expressed by mediaeval life in the building of Chartres and the formation of the guilds...
...In many respects they have a valuable parallel in history: the whole idea of such scientific rules for living as those drawn up by Saint Ignatius, for instance, was to make possible the selection of individuals for a certain kind of service, and to guarantee at least relative success and efficiency...
...And, of course, the varied forms of psychiatry have a clientele which runs into the thousands...
...Of particular interest was the news that the late Samuel Gompers had become interested in methods of psychological selection which up until now have been illustrated chiefly by the Taylor system...
...The finest of all pleas for humanism is the fact that by it we are kept human...
...Men and women find it increasingly difficult to establish the right sort of connection with an era which is ruthlessly hostile to failure and which crushes human weakness as a bad boy crushes flies...
Vol. 3 • January 1926 • No. 10
