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PRESENT-DAY 
 APPLICATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO 
 
 INDUSTRY, EDUCATION 
 
 AND 
 
 NERVOUS BREAKDOWN 
 
 ft-' 
 
 CHARLES S. MYERS 
 
 M.A., M.D., Sc.D., F.R.S. 
 
 DIRECTOR OF THE 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL LABORATORY, CAMBRIDGE 
 
 LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, R.A.M.C. 
 
 SOMETIME CONSULTING PSYCHOLOGIST, B.E.F. 
 
 METHUliN & CO. LSD. 
 
 36 ESTEX STREET W.C. 
 
 LONDON ' 
 U 
 
First Published in igi8 
 
 K 
 
 
PRESENT-DAY APPLICATIONS 
 OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 With special reference to Industry, Education, and Nervous 
 
 Breakdown^ ; two lectures delivered at the Royal Institution 
 
 of Great Britain on April nth and i8th, 1918 
 
 AT one time all systems of knowledge were 
 embraced under the term Philosophy. From 
 it long ago separated Natural Philosophy, 
 
 the scientific study of living and lifeless ^??,^f'e" 
 1 ii ii 1 ot Modern 
 
 matter, and more recently there has psychology. 
 
 emerged as an independent science Mental 
 Philosophy or (as it is now called) Psychology, the 
 scientific study of the human and animal mind. 
 Each of these two branches of Natural Science — 
 physical and psychical science — has developed 
 methods peculiarly its own. Each has come to be 
 more or less independent of the common parent 
 Philosophy, as each has become more or less ex- 
 clusively devoted to systematic, concrete observation 
 and experiment. The methods of modern (or, as it 
 is inadequately termed, experimental) psychology 
 have come to differ from those of physiology and 
 from those of physics, because their aims and outlook 
 are different. 
 
 The differences in standpoint between the physicist 
 and the psychologist may be conveniently illustrated 
 by such an experiment as that of determining the 
 point of equality between two lengths, colours, or 
 
 "• The industrial applications of psychology are described on 
 pages 7-26 ; nervous breakdown is discussed on pages 29-47. 
 
 3 
 
4 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 other sensory experiences, or the point of just appre- 
 ciable difference between them ; one of the two being 
 a fixed ' standard ' and the other being a 
 The stand- > variable ' which has to be made equal to 
 of'the °^ i^^^ different from it. The physicist 
 
 physicist only uses such an experiment to help him 
 *"^ n't '^ arrive at the properties of matter ; he 
 gist. employs no special method, but proceeds 
 
 at random to make one length equal to 
 another, to produce one colour or brightness just 
 different from another, etc. The psychologist, on the 
 other hand, is concerned with the differences that 
 arise according to whether the observer manipulates 
 the apparatus, himself producing the point of equality 
 or of least perceptible difference, or whether he has 
 the two experiences, the standard and the variable, 
 presented to him by some other person and has merely 
 to pass judgment on them. The psychologist also 
 determines the differences that arise according to 
 the relative spatial and temporal positions of the vari- 
 able and standard, and according as the point of just 
 appreciable difference is approached from an in- 
 appreciable difference or from an easily appreciable 
 difference ; and so on. 
 
 A specific example may make clearer the special 
 standpoint of the psychologist. I was recently invited 
 to apply my psychological training to an experiment 
 of some importance being conducted by physicists, 
 which consisted in leading by separate tubes the 
 same sound to the two ears and in manipulating the 
 two tubes so that the two ears received the same sound 
 under precisely the same conditions, in which case 
 the sound was of course localised by the observer 
 exactly midway between the two ears within the head. 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY s 
 
 I found that the apparatus was being used by persons 
 who had not been submitted to any previous test as 
 regards their auditory acuity, nor as regards differences 
 in the auditory acuity of their two ears. Now it was 
 essential in these experiments to be able to localise 
 faint sounds; and a sufficiently great difference in 
 the acuity of the two ears (often unknown to the 
 observer) must, in certain cases at least, throw the 
 sound over to the keener ear when conditions were 
 such that to a person with normal hearing the'sound 
 would be localised midway between the two ears. I 
 also found that obvious differences might arise ac- 
 cording as the apparatus was manipulated so that a 
 rightward sound or a correspondingly leftward sound 
 was adjusted to become a midway sound. Three 
 obvious psychological factors might be here involved. 
 The first of these was 'inertia of judgment,' the 
 observer continuing to give the same reply owing to 
 the nature of his previous answers. The second was 
 'adaptation/ the observer becoming adapted, and 
 so coming to be less sensitive, to the right or left 
 character of the sound, and its lateral character hence 
 becoming less noticeable. The third factor was 
 'expectation,' the observer stopping before he had 
 reached the true middle position because he had been 
 expecting that position to be reached. Yet another 
 factor was found to consist in the tendency of certain 
 individuals with normal hearing to localise doubtful 
 sounds preponderatingly on one particular side. 
 
 For the physicist such problems have no interest ; 
 nor have they for the physiologist. Neither physicist 
 nor physiologist is concerned with the choice of 
 method and with the underlying psychological fac- 
 tors. Let us suppose that the physiologically trained 
 
6 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 physician wishes to determine the keenness of vision 
 in a subject. He confronts him with the well-known 
 cards> of test-types. He is not particular 
 The stand- jjj jjjg ygg Qf ^ny well-defined method 
 thephysi- of procedure. Individual differences of 
 ologistand familiarity with letters, due to illiteracy, 
 choloSt. sire not taken into account. Differences in 
 the ease of recognition of different letters 
 are not considered. The physiologist proceeds in his 
 investigation of sensory experiences just as if he were 
 dealing with the measurement of pure sensation. 
 He takes no account of the psychological complica- 
 tions just mentioned, nor of others such as the 
 influence of excitement, fatigue, and individual 
 differences in the use of interpretation. The psy- 
 chologist, on the other hand, carefully predetermines 
 his method, choosing one of the established methods 
 which can be precisely repeated on the same subject 
 or on other subjects for comparison of individual 
 differences or of the psychological factors of practice, 
 fatigue, and the like. He chooses an apparatus 
 which shall eliminate, so far as possible, differences 
 due to education, interpretation, etc. 
 
 That psychological factors really do enter into what 
 are commonly regarded as physiological or medical 
 tests, that consequently even such a 'low-level ' test as 
 the examination of sensory acuity needs to be con- 
 ducted by an examiner trained in psychology, is indi- 
 cated by a recent claim that on Monday mornings 
 not only is there a notorious deterioration in the effi- 
 ciency of work performed, but there may also occur a 
 diminution in visual and auditory acuity among the 
 workers. Clearly psychological factors, some of which 
 we shall presently come to recognise in our analysis of 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 7 
 
 the work curves, must be responsible for so wide- 
 spread a change. I may add that most of the workers 
 here tested were abstainers from alcohol. 
 
 So far I have alluded to psychological work in 
 sensory experience. But in other parts of the psycho- 
 logical field, the results of applied psychol- 
 ogy are proving even more valuable. The Applica- 
 science of education is interested in the psychology 
 psychological investigation of the relation *? educa- 
 between such general factors as origin- problems, 
 ality, the power of sustained attention, etc., 
 and different specific abilities. Education is also 
 interested in the psychological experiments that have 
 been devised to examine whether the practice or 
 fatigue resulting from a given piece of work is followed 
 by improvement or by deterioration in similar or dis- 
 similar pieces of work. To what extent can ' formal 
 training,' as it is called, say in memorising Latin verses 
 or dates, be shown to yield improvement in other 
 feats of memory ? To what extent is training acquired 
 by one side of the body reflected on the other 
 side? To what extent does fatigue in one school 
 subject involve a general fatigue for other subjects ? 
 
 But I wish to pass on to consider industrial 
 the applications of psychology to the efficiency 
 conditions of industrial efficiency and ^jjua" ' 
 to the study of individual mental differ- mental 
 ences. differences. 
 
 For many years past psychologists have been 
 analysing in the laboratory the factors influencing 
 muscular and mental work. For willed muscular 
 work they have relied ipainly on the ergograph, an 
 apparatus which studies the power of work of a single 
 finger periodically bending and extending at a single 
 
8 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 joint, each bending of the finger raising a given 
 
 weight a certain distance. The total distance through 
 
 which the weight has been moved can 
 
 graph'and afterwards be calculated, and since the 
 
 muscular weight is known, the total work can be de- 
 
 ^"'•^ termined. The movements of the finger 
 
 curve. 
 
 can be recorded by a lever brought to 
 
 bear on a travelling smoked surface, and thus an 
 
 ergogram or ' muscular work curve ' is obtained. 
 
 A ' mental work curve ' is obtained by calculating, 
 say minute by minute, the amount of work correctly 
 performed in some simple process, such as 
 The i""i- erasing a prescribed letter (comparable to 
 curve. proof-correcting), or adding or multiplying 
 
 pairs of figures, or placing a dot in the 
 centre of each of a number of small circles presented 
 rapidly one by one to the observer. 
 
 With the ergograph, complete exhaustion is sooner 
 
 or later attained, the speed of its onset depending on 
 
 _ the condition of the worker, on the weight 
 
 Recovery ,.^ , , , ^ . . , , 
 
 from ergo- lifted, and on the rate of repetition of the 
 
 graphic movement. After sufficient rest, complete 
 recovery occurs, so that a second ergogram 
 equal to the first is obtainable. The amount of rest 
 necessary for complete recovery is found to vary with 
 the amount of work done, a decrease in the amount 
 of work allowing of a more than corresponding de- 
 crease in the period of rest needed for recovery. 
 Thus if the finger, lifting a given weight, make 30 
 contractions in 60 seconds, a 2 hours' rest is 
 necessary to obtain an equally good repetition of this 
 work. If, however, with the same weight, the finger 
 make 15 contractions at the same rate, i.e. in 30 
 seconds, not i hour's rest, but half-an-hour's rest 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 9 
 
 suffices for recovery. If, to take a reductio almost ad 
 absurdum, the finger make only one contraction, only 
 10" rest need be given between that and each suc- 
 ceeding contraction in order that the contractions 
 shall continue, in theory, indefinitely. That is to say, 
 ideally, in an eight-hour day, 120 contractions can 
 be obtained if the subject works for spells of a minute, 
 240 contractions will be obtained if he works in spells 
 of half-a-minute, and 2400 contractions will be 
 obtained if he works in spells of 2", resting until re- 
 covery after each spell.^ These data, of course, are 
 complicated in actual application by various other 
 factors, some of which we shall immediately study, 
 but the importance of regulating the length of work 
 periods for the efficiency of muscular and mental work 
 is, as we shall see, becoming generally recognised. 
 
 Next, in importance; to the length of work periods, 
 comes the consideration of the weight lifted at each 
 
 effort. It is clear that with a very light load , „ 
 , , , , . ■' , , Influence 
 
 the ergogram could be contmued almost of the load 
 
 indefinitely, while with a very heavy weight °" effici- 
 
 only a few contractions could be carried 
 
 out before exhaustion resulted. A certain load can 
 
 be found for each practised subject, which allows of 
 
 the performance of the maximal amount of work. 
 
 This principle has been appHed practically in the 
 
 case of 500 shovellers who were being 
 
 employed in shovelling, with a shovel of Industrial 
 
 constant size, material of very varying tion. 
 
 weight, — sometimes coal, sometimes ashes, 
 
 at other times heavy iron ore, etc. Experiments 
 
 ' Cf. "Lectures on Industrial Psychology," by B. Muscio, 
 Sydney, 1917, where many of the facts here recorded will be 
 found. 
 
10 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 were conducted with shovels of different sizes in 
 
 order to ascertain the optimal weight per shovel load 
 
 for a good shoveller. The. best average weight was 
 
 found to be 2 1 lbs. Accordingly shovels were made 
 
 of different sizes, in proportion to the heaviness of 
 
 the material shovelled, so that each shovel whether 
 
 full of coal, ash or iron, etc., weighed 2 1 lbs. This 
 
 was the most important innovation, although others 
 
 were at the same time carried out. The results were 
 
 as follows: — (i) the average amount shovelled per 
 
 day rose by nearly 270 per cent. — from 16 to 59 
 
 tons per man, (ii) 150 men could now perform what 
 
 500 men had performed under previous conditions, 
 
 (iii) the average earnings of the shovellers increased 
 
 by 60 per cent., (iv) the cost to the management, after 
 
 paying all extra expenses, was reduced by 50 per 
 
 cent., (v) there was no evidence of increased fatigue 
 
 of the shovellers. 
 
 In the case of mental work curves, a more detailed 
 
 analysis has been attempted in the laboratory, the 
 
 principal factors which have been ana- 
 
 oAlie^'^ lysed being fatigue, practice, incitement, 
 
 mental spurt and settlement ; and by varying the 
 
 ^°^^ conditions attempts have been made to 
 
 curve. ^ . f 
 
 measure some of these constituents oi 
 
 the work curve. 
 
 Obviously fatigue and practice work in opposite 
 directions, and the work curve obtained is the re- 
 sultant of these factors. Generally speak- 
 Fatigue ijjg^ jjjg influence of practice is great at 
 practice. first, but smaller later, whereas the influ- 
 ence of fatigue is small at first but greater 
 later. The effects of practice disappear during a 
 pause slowly at first but faster later : as a celebrated 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY n 
 
 pianist once said, — "If I miss one day's practice, f 
 notice the difference : if I miss (wo days' practice, my 
 wife notices the differen.ee : if I miss three days' 
 practice, the public notices the difference. The effects 
 of fatigue, on the other hand, disappear during a 
 pause, rapidly at first, but more slowly later, as the 
 harmful waste products of activity are removed and 
 the worn tissues become completely refreshed. 
 
 We have definite experimental evidence that much 
 of the improvement that occurs with practice pro- 
 ceeds unconsciously, and not only during but also 
 between periods of practice. Hence the value of 
 distributed repetitions^; and hence the foundation 
 of the old adage that we learn to skate in summer 
 and to swim in winter. 
 
 We now recognise that one of the most important 
 effects of practice lies in the synthesis of a number 
 of previously separate acts of attention into a single 
 act. The span of attention becomes widened, but 
 this widening does not occur continuously during 
 practice but in jerks. Hence in learning such a 
 skilled movement as typewriting, the practice curve 
 does not show a regular improvement but it rises up 
 to a certain level, and remains, despite practice, for 
 some time at this level, until a certain stage of mental 
 organization is reached when it starts to rise again 
 until a further plateau is reached, and so on. 
 
 Just as the practice of complex acts brings about 
 unconscious organization, so fatigue involves uncon- 
 scious disorganization, long before actual exhaustion 
 occurs. An even earlier safeguard against the onset 
 of exhaustion consists in the development of nervous 
 impulses inhibiting further activity. 
 * See later, page 1 7. 
 
12 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 A brief pause causes a change in the mental work 
 curve which cannot be explained merely by loss of 
 practice and fatigue. After the resump- 
 ^^nt' ^'°" °^ ""^^^ ^ certain period is required 
 for getting under way. The human 
 machine has 'grown cold'; it must needs be 
 'warmed up.' This factor is evidently something 
 different from practice ; it has been termed ' incite- 
 ment.' 
 
 Yet another factor complicating the work curve is 
 the presence of 'spurts.' Work is not performed 
 regularly, apart from the effects of practice, 
 Spurts. fatigue and incitement. It comes in 
 spurts and irregular waves due to fluctua- 
 tions of volitional tension dependent on varying 
 interest, emotion, etc. The most striking spurt occurs 
 immediately upon the resumption of work after a 
 rest.; a spurt may often also occur when, despite 
 fatigue, the worker is aware that he is reaching the 
 end of his task. 
 
 Lastly, the factor I have called ' settlement ' must 
 
 be mentioned. It, in turn, is distinct from practice 
 
 and from incitement. It is not improve- 
 Settle- • • 
 
 jjjgjjj. ment from previous exercise^ it is not the 
 
 warming up of a machine that has grown 
 cold with rest. It consists in settling down to a 
 mental state secure from distraction. 
 
 These various factors, practice, fatigue, incitement, 
 spurt, settlement, must also occur in the work curves 
 
 obtained from industrial labour. In the 
 Industrial curves actually obtained from Florentine 
 curves. typesetters, the influence of fatigue and 
 
 initial spurt and the effects of rest alone are 
 demonstrated. But this is owing to the length of the 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 13 
 
 time-unit (one hour) employed. Moreover, different 
 conditions and kinds of work will yield different 
 curves. Thus when the fatigue involved is slight, 
 and the influence of practice or of end-spurt is 
 sufficiently great, a larger instead of a smaller output 
 of work will occur towards the end of the day's work. 
 
 In regard to settlement, we have to bear several 
 psychological facts in mind. First, the human mind 
 is capable of quite remarkable power of 
 neglect of distracting impressions. {Cf. ^°\{ 
 the ability to hear speech amid the noise freedom 
 of a factory ; or the ability to banish ex- [j°™jon " 
 traneous sounds while doing mental work.) 
 Secondly, when such distractions (noise, glare, need 
 less movements) are reduced from a maximum to a 
 minimum, the diminution in the strain involved in 
 their neglect leads to noticeable improvement in the 
 output of work ; e.g. a case is on record where the 
 output was increased by 25 per cent, after removing 
 to quieter surroundings certain employees who had 
 been hitherto working in the noise of a yard. 
 
 The importance of industrial fatigue is shown in 
 the close correlation which has in some cases been 
 found between the work curve and the 
 curve of the frequency of accidents. Cer- curves, 
 tain accident curves have indicated that 
 the number of accidents may increase as the output 
 of work becomes less, the number being smallest in 
 the first few hours of the morning and after the 
 dinner hour and being greatest towards the end of 
 the morning or of the afternoon. Of course in some 
 factories there may be a stoppage of work on the 
 part of the machines or of the operatives at the last 
 hour of the day and hence a decline in the accident 
 
1+ APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 curve. End-spurt might produce the same effect. 
 So might the excitement which may arise from 
 (and mask) states of fatigue, or result from other 
 psychical factors. Moreover, there are other causes 
 of accidents, besides fatigue. 
 
 Laboratory experiments have shown that the sub- 
 jective feeling of fatigue is no criterion of an in- 
 _ ,. , capacity to perform satisfactory work, 
 fatigue We have experimental evidence that an 
 and of excellent output of work may be obtained 
 
 when the feeling of fatigue is severe. A 
 similarly untrustworthy (but opposite) feeling of 
 eflficiency occurs under the influence of alcohol and 
 in certain conditions of fatigue, when the work per- 
 formed under its influence is actually less accurate 
 and reliable. 
 
 During rest after a period of work a certain 
 
 amount of practice is lost, but as an oifset to this, 
 
 a certain amount of fatigue is lost, and 
 
 The most there is also, on the other hand, a loss of 
 favourable . . ' , ^^ '. 
 
 pause. mcitement and settlement. Various ex- 
 
 periments have been conducted in order 
 to find the ' most favourable pause,' i.e. the pause in 
 which the various factors so operate as to produce 
 a maximal amount of work after the pause. 
 
 In the factory the importance of interpolating 
 more frequent rest pauses is only just beginning to 
 Th ■ du ^^ realised. There can be no doubt that 
 trial value an unbroken morning or afternoon's work 
 of rest of four or more hours is economically un- 
 
 sound, and that the systematic introduction 
 of rest pauses (together with the elimination of periods 
 of slackness, needless movements, etc.) must lead to 
 a vast improvement in quantity and quality of work. 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 15 
 
 Let me exemplify this by quoting the results of a 
 trench-digging competition during the present war 
 between two companies. The officer of one company 
 allowed his men to work uninterruptedly until their 
 condition demanded a rest. The officer of the rival 
 company divided his men into three sections, of 
 which each section successively worked their utmost 
 for 5' and rested for 10'. This systematic arrange- 
 ment resulted in an easy win for his company. So 
 too in a certain munitions factory, the interpolation 
 of a 15' rest in each hour is reported to have yielded 
 a definite increase in the output of work, despite the 
 initial objection of the men, who were being paid by 
 piece-work.^ 
 
 The German shipbuilders have recognised the 
 better output of work on the Clyde, despite, nay 
 rather because of, the shorter hours of their daily 
 work. A certain firm in Manchester had factories 
 both in Lancashire and Belgium. The hours of work 
 in their Lancashire factory were 51a week : in their 
 Belgian factory 66 a week. Yet for identical work, 
 the. Lancashire operatives produced the larger output.^ 
 In this connexion, I should like to quote an 
 instance,^ occurring recently in a surgical-dressing 
 factory where women were engaged as yarn-winders, 
 an occupation requiring much dexterity and the con- 
 stant repairing of broken threads. The daily hours 
 of work were ten, namely from 6-8, 8.30-12.30, 1.30- 
 5.30, and in addition to these ten hours, overtime 
 
 • " Interim Report on Industrial Efficiency and Fatigue,'' 
 Ministry of Munitions, 1917, pages 10, 16. 
 
 * Cf. Engineering, October 6th, 1916, page 231. 
 
 ' Given in "Second Interim Report of an Investigation of 
 Industrial Fatigue," etc., by Prof. A. F. Stanley Kent, 1916, 
 pages 37, 38. 
 
1 6 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 was worked from 6-8 p.m. Among these yarn winders 
 was an unmarried woman of 32 who claimed that by 
 not working before breakfast (from 6 to 8 a.m.) and 
 by refusing to work overtime (from 6 to 8 p.m.), she 
 turned out more in the remaining eight hours than, if 
 she had worked the whole twelve hours. Her claim 
 was put to the test by comparing her monthly output 
 during eight hours per day with that of three first- 
 class hands working during the first fortnight at 
 twelve hours per day and during the second fortnight 
 at ten hours per day. Despite the fact that the 
 short-timer stayed away the whole of one working 
 day and three half-days during the month, her output 
 of 52,429 bobbins easily beat the average output 
 of her three competitors' 48,529 bobbins. In 32 per 
 cent, less hours of work she produced 8 per cent, 
 more work. Further, the output of the three com- 
 petitors was greater by more than 5 per cent, during 
 the second (as compared with the first) fortnight, 
 when no overtime was being worked and the length of 
 the working day was thus reduced by 16.6 per cent. 
 
 Other instances might be cited in which psycho- 
 logical experiments point the way to economy in 
 
 _ . mental and muscular effort by the employ- 
 
 Economi- , , , , , • , 
 
 calmeth- ment of the best method. Among the 
 
 ods of numerous investigations made on the 
 
 ^' powers of memory, few are more striking 
 than the comparison between what have been called' 
 the ' entire ' and the ' sectional ' methods of learning. 
 By the entire method of learning, say, twelve hues of 
 poetry, is meant the method which proceeds by read- 
 ing through the entire twelve lines, then endeavouring 
 to reproduce them, next reading the entire twelve 
 lines afresh, again endeavouring to reproduce them, 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 17 
 
 and so alternately reading and endeavouring to re- 
 produce the whole twelve lines until success is 
 attained. This method has been compared experi- 
 mentally with the sectional method, in which the 
 twelve lines are divided into six (or three) sections 
 and a section, of two (or four) lines, is learnt by 
 alternate reading and attempted reproduction until it 
 can be reproduced correctly, and then the next section 
 is similarly learnt and added and then the next (and 
 so on), until the whole twelve lines are learnt. It is 
 found that the sectional method is distinctly more 
 wasteful than the entire method. Investigations have 
 also been made on the effects of accumulated, as 
 compared with distributed repetition in learning. In 
 what degree is it more economical, for example, when 
 applying, say, twenty-four repetitions to learning a 
 given task, to employ the repetitions all at once, or 
 to give twelve at two different times, or eight at three 
 different times or four at six different times, and 
 so on? 
 
 The importance of a good method is well enough 
 recognised in learning such accomplishments as type- 
 writing, golf, and playing a musical instru- 
 ment. Yet in regard to industry, the need ^°^'°"' 
 for good method and the need for syste- 
 matic training are only just beginning to be realised, 
 as is instanced in the following illustrations of what 
 is now technically known as 'motion-study.' A 
 systematic study of the conditions of brick-laying by 
 Gilbreth in America resulted in the reduction of the 
 number of separate movements involved from eigh- 
 teen to five, with the consequence that thirty men 
 were able to lay as many bricks as about a hundred 
 men according to the old method, with the expendi- 
 
1 8 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 ture of less fatigue and the receipt of much higher 
 wages. The useless movements were eliminated, and 
 the number of acts of decision were reduced by the 
 following changes, — (i) the avoidance of repeatedly 
 stepping towards and away from the pile of bricks 
 and mortar and of stooping to pick up each brick 
 and trowel-full of mortar (an enormous waste of 
 bodily energy), by placing the materials close to the 
 workman's grasp ; (ii) the avoidance of turning each 
 brick over in his hand, by having the bricks previously 
 arranged by a less skilled workman so that the best 
 facing of all the bricks lay in the same direction; 
 (iii) the suppression of the taps of the trowel made 
 by the workman on each brick as it is laid and 
 their replacement by slight hand-pressure (in order to 
 obtain the proper thickness of the layer of mortar). 
 Economy was also secured by the substitution of 
 simultaneous symmetrical movements of the two limbs 
 for successive movements; e.g., the workman was 
 instructed to pick up the brick and the trowel in 
 his left and right hands sipultaneously, instead of 
 successively. 
 
 Similar economy, as regards the assembly (fitting 
 together) of parts, has been introduced into at least 
 one munitions factory by the more liberal use of un- 
 skilled labour in placing the parts in convenient 
 positions ready for assembling, by the introduction of 
 regular order and rhythm, by fixing the positions of 
 the tools to be employed, by avoiding needless stand- 
 ing, glare and noise; thus eliminating unnecessary 
 worry and fatigue and reducing the number of the 
 acts of decision on the part of the skilled workmen 
 to a minimum. 
 
 Motion-study has been also advanced by the 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 19 
 
 employment of the chronocyclegraph.^ An electric 
 lamp is attached to the moving limb and its move- 
 ments are photographed as a white line on a dark 
 background. Into the electric circuit of this lamp an 
 interrupting tuning-fork is introduced so that the 
 movement studied instead of being revealed as a 
 continuous white line is revealed as a series of dashes ^ 
 thus indicating the relative speed of the different parts 
 of the movement, according to the closeness of the 
 dashes. A further improvement consists in replacing 
 the dashes by blunt arrowheads, indicating the direc- 
 tion of any part of the movement; and a squared 
 screen is photographed on the plate before the move- 
 ment is photographed, thus measuring the extent of 
 each part of the movement. By the aid of stereo- 
 scopic photography the movement can be exhibited 
 in relief, i.e. in three dimensions, from which a wire 
 model can be prepared for the purposes of study and 
 instruction ; useless, needless and harmful movements 
 being thus brought to light and eliminated. Such a 
 wire model has been found to have several advan- • 
 tages over a cinematographic display of themovement. 
 The movement is constantly there before the eyes of 
 the student, instead of being given to him in a fleet- 
 ing presentation. The movement may be also re- 
 garded from any angle, instead of being confined, as 
 in the cinematograph, to the angle from which the 
 camera viewed the movement. 
 
 The importance of applied psychology is nowhere 
 more clearly seen than in the study of individual 
 mental differences, which has long been a subject 
 
 •See "Motion Study and Time Study Instruments of 
 Precision," by F. B. and L. M. Gilbreth, Transactions, 
 Internal. Engineering Congress, 1915. 
 
20 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 of laboratory investigation. The average muscular 
 or mental work of adults under given conditions, the 
 average memory of children of a certain 
 Individual ^gg^ etc., are no doubt of importance 
 differences, both for the psychologist and in the indus- 
 trial, medical and educational applications 
 of such knowledge. But still more important is the 
 study of the indmdual mental differences which enter 
 into every conceivable psychological test. Tested 
 for sensory acuity, one individual will make every use 
 of vague suggestions and interpret them correctly, 
 another will refuse to act save on the basis of de- 
 finite, sure, sensory impressions. Tested for memory, 
 one individual will learn better when he sees than 
 when he hears the material to be learnt; as he en- 
 deavours to reproduce what he has learnt, one will 
 see it in his mind's eye, as we say : one will hear it 
 in his mind's ear, as we may say : another will re- 
 produce it without any recognisable imagery, merely 
 'knowing.' These and other more important indi- 
 vidual differences demand recognition in childhood 
 for educational purposes, and for help in the choice 
 of a profession or trade when the time for this choice 
 draws near. 
 
 But probably the last reason for choice of employ- 
 ment, in the vast majority of cases, is the innate fit- 
 
 Theneed '"^^^ °^ ^^^ ^^^ °'^ ^^^^ ^°^ some special 
 for voca- vocation. In London, the County Council 
 tional ad- have appointed a psychologist to their 
 ■ educational staff; but so far no attempt 
 has been made in this country to keep at each school 
 a dossier in which the special characteristics of each 
 child are entered and to establish a vocational advice 
 ofiSce, where, on the basis of such information and 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 21 
 
 other observations, expert opinion could be given as 
 regards the kind of work which a boy or girl is best 
 fitted to perform. Nor has any general attempt been 
 made to provide systematic psychological investiga- 
 tion of individual cases of mental retardation and 
 precocity. The waste of educational effort in the 
 schools, the waste of time and money in apprenticing 
 children to trades at which they will never efficiently 
 work, is simply incredible. The child fitted for 
 mental work takes up manual employment. Fitted 
 for outdoor work, he takes up indoor employment. 
 Having directive capacity, he is wastefuUy used as 
 dependent on others. Having an interest in general 
 principles or in administration, he finds himself en- 
 gaged in a narrow detailed routine. Being quick and 
 impulsive, he is placed where cautious deliberation is 
 essential. And vice versa. These and numerous 
 other individual differences could have been ascer- 
 tained at the outset of his vocational career. 
 
 The following examples will suffice to show how 
 they have been ascertained by the aid of 
 psychological examination.^ of'^fh^^n- 
 
 Twenty-seven of the applicants for ten vestiga- 
 
 vacancies for the post of salesman to a j.""."^ |°" 
 , , f , , , , dividual 
 
 large company had been selected on the mental dif- 
 
 ground of health, appearance and previous ferences for 
 
 J A u 1 • ^ 1 J ^ industrial 
 
 record. A psychologist was asked to purposes. 
 
 choose from these twenty-seven the ten 
 mentally best fitted for the work. He studied their 
 mental work curve by means of the letter ig) Sales- 
 erasing test (see page 8), observing men. 
 the care, steadiness, improvability, fatigability, etc., 
 
 ' Cf. " Psychology and Industrial Efficiency," New York, 
 by Prof. H. MUnsterberg. 
 
2 2 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 shown. He investigated their memory by read- 
 ing to them numbers of 7-10 digits, newspaper 
 paragraphs and pairs of associated words, and 
 getting them to reproduce the numbers, the sub- 
 stance of the paragraphs, and the other member of 
 each pair of words when the first member was read to 
 them. He determined their span of apprehension by 
 the tachistpscope (an apparatus for the momentary 
 display of a number of objects), their speed of reac- 
 tion by getting them to sort out as rapidly as possible 
 forty-eight cards into four piles according to the letter 
 printed on them, and so on. In this way he selected 
 the best applicants for the ten vacancies. 
 
 The same psychologist was asked to devise a test 
 for examining the drivers of electric trams as regards 
 their speed of apprehending and acting 
 (6) Electric qjj ^ given situation. A ten minutes' test 
 drivers. applied to each of the employees showed 
 a very close correspondence between their 
 efficiency at this test and their efficiency in actual 
 service, as judged by the number of accidents re- 
 corded against them. 
 
 In a recent visit to an ' automatic ' telephone ex- 
 change, I was informed that the special saving was in 
 , , _ . the time hitherto wasted in the reaction of 
 
 phone the telephone exchange girls, so that now 
 
 Exchange fewer trunk lines were needed. Psycho- 
 ^ ■ logical tests on the speed of reaction to 
 
 light, the speed and accuracy of movement, the span 
 of apprehension, the memory for figures heard, have 
 been applied with good effect to the choice of appli- 
 cants as telephone operators. 
 
 In a bicycle-ball factory, 120 girls were employed 
 in inspecting balls for flaws, the balls lying along the 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 23 
 
 interspace between the backs of two fingers of the left 
 hand, and defective balls being removed by a magnet 
 held in the right hand. For this work 
 good vision, good powers of observation tau factory" 
 and quick reaction were essential. The 
 result of a study of the reaction times of these girls 
 was that some of the most intelligent and industrious 
 and honest of them were found unsuited to the work 
 and were transferred to more suitable occupation else- 
 where. By employing only the most suitable workers, 
 thirty-five could do the work of the previous hundred 
 and twenty, their hours were reduced from 10 J to 8 J 
 per day, two days' holiday was given per month, their 
 wages were increased by nearly 100 per cent., the 
 accuracy of the work was increased by two-thirds, and 
 there was a large decrease in the cost' of production 
 of the balls.i 
 
 In this country we are just beginning to apply the 
 study of reaction times to the selection of candidates 
 for the Royal Air Force.^ Their visual, 
 
 auditory and tactual reaction times are (f) ^'j^. . 
 . , . ., , . , Royal Air 
 
 determmed. A pilot who is slow to react Force. 
 
 when a sight or a sound or a touch is pre- 
 sented to him which is fraught with danger and de- 
 mands immediate action, can never make a first-class 
 fighting aviator. But still more important than a 
 speedy reaction is a speedy appropriate reaction. 
 This again has been the subject of laboratory psycho- 
 logical investigation where a series of possible re- 
 actions, one right, the others wrong, is afforded the 
 observer. 
 
 ' Cf. F. W. Taylor's "Principles of Scientific Management," 
 also quoted by Milnsterberg and Muscio {op. cit.). 
 ^ Cf. The Lancet, March i6th, 191 8, page 399. 
 
24 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 Thus the applicability of experimental psychology 
 to war problems is beginning to gain recognition in 
 
 this country. When the United States 
 Two entered the war, a number of psychological 
 
 contrasted^, committees were immediately appointed in 
 
 that country to advise on the examination 
 of recruits, the selection of men for tasks requiring 
 special skill, the examination of candidates for 
 aviation, the problems connected with aviation, the 
 consideration of visual and acoustic problems con- 
 nected with the war {e.g. the principles of camou- 
 flage, and of submarine and aeroplane detection), the 
 problems connected with training, discipline, re- 
 creation, self-control, etc. 
 
 But instead of increasing efficiency by selecting the 
 most suitable and efficient workers, and by modifying 
 the conditions of their work by adequate rest pauses, 
 by economizing the number of movements and of 
 acts of decision, and the like, it is far simpler, where 
 greater output is needed, simply to pour in more un- 
 trained and unfit workers into the factory, more 
 inefficient clerks into offices, and so on. In place of 
 increasing the efficiencyand specialisation of our larger 
 factories, hospitals, etc., it is tempting to adopt the 
 easier and, really in the end, more costly method of 
 scattering enormous numbers of relatively inefficient, 
 semi-amateur, small units over the face of the country. 
 The costliness and inefficiency of this procedure 
 are obvious. Its attractiveness is due to our national 
 habit of muddling through somehow and to the 
 opposition of workers to the introduction of industrial 
 psychology and scientific management. They fear 
 very naturally that increased output and economy of 
 labour can only mean the discharge of a certain 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 25 
 
 number of employees into unemployment, the de- 
 struction of interest, the loss of liberty to employees, 
 and still greater profits accruing to capital ; and they 
 confuse industrial psychology and scientific manage- 
 ment with the vicious policy of ' sweating ' or ' speed- 
 ing up.' 
 
 The future can only lie in educating both employers 
 and employees. The employer must understand that 
 increased profits, arising through increased 
 
 efficiency and diminished cost of output, "^^^ . 
 
 present 
 are to be properly shared between capital outlook. 
 
 and labour ; and he must take special pains 
 that the whole objects of industrial psychology are 
 explained to the workmen and that their co-operation 
 is obtained before any systematic observations and ex- 
 periments are begun in the factory. The employees 
 must be educated to see that different individuals are 
 innately fitted for different kinds of employment, 
 that it is for their own benefit, not in order to restrict 
 their freedom of choice, that advisory vocational 
 offices will be established, and that more rest does not 
 mean less pay if it produces increased efficiency and 
 does away with unlawful slacking during work hours. 
 They must be made to understand that motion 
 study develops interest in their daily work and that 
 the abolition of needless movements no more involves 
 speeding up than the introduction of shorthand 
 necessarily involves severer ' sweating ' than ordinary 
 writing.! Both employer and employee must strive to 
 the result that by such shorthand methods of work and 
 by the suitable selection of workers the duration of 
 the day's task will be so limited that at its close the 
 workers are left with sufficient energy to enjoy their 
 * Cf. Muscio, of. cit., pages 43, 44. 
 
26 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 rest and to amuse themselves profitably, not degrad- 
 ingly, during this rest. The time seems ripe for the 
 formation of a society, composed of employers, em- 
 ployees, and scientists all working with this end in 
 view. 
 
 So far I have dealt with some of the industrial and 
 educational applications of experimental psychology 
 in the field of knowing, — and resultant do- 
 Thepsy- \^a j pg^gg ojj jjQ^ {Q discuss the applica- 
 chology of . ° , ^ , , . , , , 
 
 Feeling. t'on of psychology m regard to the second 
 
 great division of mental activity, y9«/««^, — 
 and resultant doing. 
 
 Until recently feeling has been chiefly investigated 
 in the psychological laboratory by studying the physi- 
 _ cal reactions accompanying pleasure, dis- 
 
 perimental pleasure and the emotions. Apparatus has 
 investiga- been employed to detect changes in the 
 
 vascular and respiratory system and in the 
 bodily movements' accompanying such feelings. The 
 pneumograph has been used to record the alterations 
 in rate and depth of respiration on a travelling smoked 
 surface. Similar records have been made of the 
 frequency and force of the heart beat, and of the 
 narrowing or widening of the blood vessels under con- 
 ditions of pleasure, displeasure or emotional experi- 
 ence. The steadiness or tremulousness, etc., of the 
 muscles of the body has also been investigated. 
 
 Such investigations are being to-day applied in the 
 examination of aviators for their fitness for aerial 
 
 fighting. Some of the most unsuitable can- 
 tion'to^" '^i'^^'es are found to show the most marked 
 aviation, increase in the frequency of respiration and 
 
 heart beat, the most marked constriction of 
 the blood vessels of the hand, and the most marked 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 27 
 
 tremor under conditions of being startled by sudden 
 noises, etc.^ 
 
 I have no intention to enter here on the application 
 of the methods of experimental psychology in the field 
 of aesthetics. In regard to applied experi- 
 ments on interest and attraction of atten- Psychology 
 
 T 1 1 T 1-1 1 ,. of Adver- 
 
 tion, I should like to mention some m- tisement. 
 
 vestigations on the value of advertisements 
 according to their position on the page and in the 
 volume. A number of pages were prepared, each 
 bearing an advertisement pasted on to one of the 
 four quarters of the page. It was experimentally 
 found that 33% of the advertisements recalled were 
 those which were pasted on the right upper quarter, 
 28% on the left upper quarter, 23% on the right 
 lower quarter, 16% on the left lower quarter. That is 
 to say, the right upper quarter gave more than twice the 
 advertising power of the left lower quarter. As the 
 result of another series of experiments it was claimed 
 that the value of advertisements was proved to be less 
 when interpolated in the text of a journal than when 
 they were collected together. Other experiments have 
 been directed to the relation between size and attrac- 
 tiveness of advertisements, and so on.^ I only mention 
 them without criticism to exemplify yet another of the 
 practical applications of experimental psychology. 
 
 Similarly I will but briefly allude to its application 
 in the field of jurisprudence, as regards 
 the wealth of observation and accuracy of oiPsy-^^°'^ 
 memory, according to age, sex and other chology 
 conditions (in the case of a series of events *° •'?^*^' 
 which have been witnessed under experi- 
 mental but natural conditions), as regards the reliance 
 
 ' Cf. The Lancet, March i6, 1918, p. 399. 
 
 ^ Quoted by Munsterberg, of. cit. 
 
28 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 to be placed on the feeling of certainty and on the 
 oath of the observers of the events, the influence of 
 the particular form in which questions are put to the 
 witnesses, etc. 
 
 They are all instances of a change which has of late 
 years been undergone by experimental psychology, 
 Modern resulting in an adequate realisation of 
 recognition the enormous importance of the study 
 portance of "^ feeling — alike in observation, memory, 
 Feeling. thought, decision and action. 
 
 One of the most important experiments leading to 
 
 this fuller recognition consisted in the simple study 
 
 _ , of 'free association reaction times.' A 
 
 Free Asso- . , , . . 
 
 ciation series of words is given to the subject who 
 
 Reaction jg instructed to reply to each word by the 
 first word or idea which occurs to him, and 
 by a stop-watch or a chronoscope the interval of time 
 is measured which elapses between the presentation 
 of the word to the subject and his answer. The ex- 
 periment is an old one, and until recently had been em- 
 ployed solely from the intellectualistic standpoint, 
 the characteristic standpoint of the older academic, 
 ' abstract,' Teutonic, experimental psychology. It 
 had been used, for example, to bring to light indi- 
 vidual diiferences in the nature of the subject's replies 
 according to age, education, occupation, interests, 
 imagination, also to study the influence of fatigue, 
 drugs {e.g. alcohol), etc. As soon, however, as inves- 
 tigation was directed to the association times, it was 
 observed that in such a series of given words, some 
 words yielded much longer association times than 
 others; and careful analysis showed that a strong 
 emotional bias was attached to the words which pro- 
 duced these long association times. For example, let 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 29 
 
 us suppose that the subject under examination had 
 
 recently suffered grief through the death of a very 
 
 dear friend. Then any ' relevant ' words, — that is to 
 
 say, words having reference to the distressing loss, — 
 
 will be found to yield longer association times than- 
 
 ' innocent ' words which have not such a reference. 
 
 The replies to such 'relevant' words also differed 
 
 in character from those returned to 'innocent' 
 
 words. 
 
 Into these details it is unnecessary here to enter. 
 
 My chief object is to indicate the practical value of 
 
 this association test. It has been usefully _. . 
 , . , . , , . ' Their 
 
 employed, m the first place, to detect crime. Practical 
 
 The suspected person is given a series of Applica- 
 
 words, some 'innocent,' others 'relevant,' 
 
 having reference to such details of the crime as could 
 
 only be significant {i.e. relevant) for the actual 
 
 criminal. His associations and association-times are 
 
 studied in the manner indicated. 
 
 The same test has been applied to .those cases of 
 mental disorder which are characterized by the re- 
 pression of experiences toned with severe and trouble- 
 some emotion. Sometimes these experiences have 
 been forgotten by the subject, sometimes they are 
 more or less voluntarily concealed by him from his 
 physician. 
 
 Thus in an emotionally unstable soldier-patient 
 (from whom I could learn little in conversation), whom 
 I examined by this method, the word ' knife ' yielded 
 an unusually long reaction-time. At first he was un- 
 able to give me any explanation. But close enquiry 
 showed that when training and firing his first shot at 
 a target, he was frightened at the recoil of his rifle. 
 Always a nervous fellow, he joined up with the Royal 
 
30 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 Engineers (no doubt to avoid the handling of fire- 
 arms) ; but in an emergency in the trenches, he was 
 one day ordered to stand to, with a loaded rifle, and 
 his former fears returned. They gradually spread to 
 the bayonet and hence to any weapon, such as a knife, 
 which might lead to the injury of himself and others. 
 Finally he confessed that every morning shaving was 
 now attended with the greatest anxiety, lest he might 
 hurt himself accidentally. Thus, the study of free 
 association reaction times put me on the track of 
 certain concealed fears and anxieties which required 
 alleviation, before the patient could be cured. 
 
 Of late years our conception of the psychology of 
 forgetting has undergone a very radical change. We 
 experimental psychologists used to look on 
 Psychology learning as a process merely of forming 
 of For- associations, we used to look on recalling 
 ge ing. ^^ ^ process merely of employing such 
 associations, and on forgetting as the result of a decay 
 in the strength of such associations. The factor of 
 feeling was expressly eliminated from our experiments 
 on memory. The material learnt in the laboratory 
 consisted commonly of meaningless numbers or of 
 senseless syllables, so that all interest or other 
 reference to past experience might be eliminated as far 
 as possible. But we now begin to realise that what is 
 learnt may never be forgotten. That is to say,' that 
 given favourable conditions its recall is always possible, 
 In the cases of nervous breakdown, which have 
 resulted in this war, it is astonishing how early 
 emotional experiences may become revived (per- 
 haps in some distorted form) and become respon- 
 sible for protracting the emotional condition of the 
 patient. 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 31 
 
 Moreover, even in such ' abstract ' intellectualistic 
 
 conditions of experiment on memory as those just 
 
 mentioned, it became clear that the revival 
 
 of an experience in consciousness does not Persevera- 
 
 , , , , , tion and 
 
 depend merely on the strength or number Repression. 
 
 of its associations with other previous ex- 
 periences. A past experience also tends to recur 
 spontaneously, owing to its inherent tendency to do 
 so especially immediately after learning. It tends to 
 'persevere,' as the psychologists say. Such 'per- 
 severation' is a common experience outside the 
 laboratory, when we have seen some dreadful sight, 
 heard some joyful news, fallen in love or suffered 
 some similar strong emotion. Apart from logical or 
 other association, such emotional experiences will 
 obtrude themselves throughout the day ; and if they 
 are unpleasant we endeavour voluntarily to ' repress ' 
 them. But the forgetting of the unpleasant is not 
 merely an affair of conscious intention. It is 
 Nature's own method of getting rid of distressful ex- 
 periences, to which the subject cannot adapt himself. 
 Thus forgetting is not merely due to the loss of 
 association strength ; it is not merely due to volun- 
 tary repression ; it is also due to a quite 
 
 - J. , ^- Dissocia- 
 
 unconscious process of dislocation or y^jj 
 
 'dissociation.' A condition, or a 'dis- 
 position ' as we may say, is induced, by which the 
 voluntary recall becomes diflficult or impossible. The 
 unpleasant 'complex,' as we may call a system of 
 ideas associated with a strong, unpleasant emotional 
 tone, becomes more or less completely split off, or 
 dissociated, from the rest of consciousness, much as 
 harmful pus becomes innocuouS|by becoming enclosed 
 in an abscess cavity. This unfavourable disposition 
 
3^ APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 for recall may be compared with the converse 
 favourable disposition for recall, which enables us all 
 at once to revive an experience that we have been 
 vainly endeavouring to remember. Suddenly, often 
 to our great surprise, after we have given up the 
 effort to recall, back comes the memory ; a favourable 
 ' constellation ' of associations, as it has been termed, 
 has arisen. Such a conception of constellation of 
 associations is something quite distinct from the con- 
 ception of the number and strength of relevantassocia- 
 tions. These must have been constant throughout; 
 but the condition for their coming into play must have 
 been unfavourable, owing to the presence of certain 
 unknown inhibiting factors. So, too, forgetting de- 
 pends not merely on the dying strength of previously 
 established associations, but also on an active inhibit- 
 ing process of dissociation, whereby* past unpleasant 
 experiences become dislocated or dissociated from 
 the main stream of consciousness. 
 
 Sometimes, in pathological conditions, the process 
 of dissociation involves much more than the distress- 
 b'ssoc' - ^^^ memory itself. Not merely the par- 
 tion of ticular memory is lost, but much (or even 
 ^rfff""' nearly all) of the previous experience of 
 the patient has disappeared. He may be 
 reduced to a state of complete ignorance of his past, 
 or to a state of temporary stupor, or he may rush 
 about, violently uncontrollable. I have seen many 
 such cases at the front during the present war. The 
 recovery of the patient is generally sudden, and he 
 then recollects nothing of what had caused the 
 shock or had happened to him after the shock. But 
 the memory of these events is nevertheless there. 
 The experiences have not really disappeared. They 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 33 
 
 have merely become dislocated or dissociated. A 
 man who has thus lain for some days stuporose, may 
 be subsequently quite ignorant of what "has occurred 
 to him during these days. If hypnotised, however,, 
 he may be readily induced to give an exact account 
 of how he was fed, how he journeyed from one 
 hospital to another, what was said to him, what dream- 
 like experiences he had, etc., etc. Yet upon waking, — 
 unless special precautions be taken, — the dissociation 
 may again at once return. In such cases we are 
 dealing with a dissociation of personality, hot merely 
 with the repression or dissociation of a single memory. 
 In the stuporose or excited state, the patient is one 
 person ; when he suddenly recovers his former 
 personality, he is again a different person ; hypnotic 
 suggestion will again reduce him to the personality 
 of the stupor or excitement. The constellation of 
 associations involved in the one personality is un- 
 favourable for the revival of memories belonging to 
 the other personality : the two are incompatible. 
 
 Let me give an example of this in the case of a 
 young signaller-patient whom I had under my care 
 quite recently. His story was that a German shell 
 dropped into the signaller's pit, killing and wounding 
 several and knocking him over. The sight of the 
 wounded stimulated him to pull himself together for 
 five minutes while he helped to tend them. He then 
 lost consciousness, and when he came to himself he 
 found himself at the other end of the position, where 
 he recalls asking to be allowed to continue his duty, 
 as only two of his fellow-signallers were left after the 
 explosion of the shell. He said he was much worried 
 over this and subsequent lapses of memory, but 
 under suggestion these were all restored to him and 
 
 3 
 
34 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 by further suggestion they became no longer forgotten 
 and incompatible. He was induced to recall being 
 assisted by Sergeant X. and an unknown gunner, one 
 under each arm, to a neighbouring gun pit where he 
 was placed on the floor and was given a hot drink. 
 He recalled men bustling about with tools, making 
 changes in the gun pit. He recalled Lieutenant Y. 
 coming up to him, and his inability to reply. This 
 officer asked the sergeant how he was. Then the 
 men became quieter in their work, and he passed 
 into a dazed state in which he mused over the loss 
 of his two signaller comrades (one his nearest friend) 
 and the terrible mutilation they had sustained. In 
 telling me this, he became extremely emotional, 
 sweating freely and clutching the chair in which he 
 sat. From this theme his thoughts had passed to 
 his home, where he sat with his papers from the 
 ofiSce and his mother was regarding him in deep 
 distress. Then (he knew not why) he was roused 
 and pulled himself together, whereupon he asked not 
 to be sent away from duty. On my asking him 
 later, he recalled all that I had wrung from him 
 through suggestion (there were other forgotten scenes 
 recalled and difficulties cleared up) ; he was delighted 
 with the relief that this revival brought to his mind. 
 His worries disappeared, and he became bright and 
 looked quite another lad. 
 
 The alternation of such conditions is strikingly ex- 
 emplified in Professor Janet's well-known case of 
 ' Irene.' Irene had undergone a severe shock owing 
 to the death of her mother to whom she was devoted, 
 whom she had nursed while endeavouring to earn her 
 living, and who had died from pulmonary hsemorrhage 
 in circumstances peculiarly distressing for Irfene. 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 35 
 
 Shortly after, Irfene began to develop a dissociated 
 personality. Suddenly, perhaps in the middle of 
 needlework or conversation, she would cease to sew 
 or talk, and would enact all the scenes relating to her 
 mother's death. During this enactment, she was 
 totally oblivious of her environment and would not 
 respond to anything that was said or done to her. 
 This personality would disappear as quickly as it had 
 appeared, and Irfene would at once resume her sewing 
 or her conversation, quite unaware that any break 
 had occurred, and without any memory of the scenes 
 she had enacted in tne interval. After a few days, 
 the personality connected with her mother's death 
 would again step on to the stage, only to pass away as 
 before, leaving no memory of its appearance behind 
 it. Moreover, on interrogating her, it was found that, 
 save in these apparently abnormal periods, she had 
 become callous and indifferent to the subject of her 
 mother's illness and death, and indeed had entirely 
 forgotten the peculiarly distressing incidents connected 
 with it. In other words, the complex of ideas relat- 
 mg to her shock had become wholly dissociated from 
 her apparently normal personality, and only returned 
 in a trance-like second personality. 
 
 But in all these cases of disordered personality, the 
 break is not absolute. Thus, when owing to shock, 
 a manis reduced to a condition of infancy, — professing 
 his ignorance of words, his inability to eat, — his be- 
 haviour is not that of an absolutely inexperienced 
 person learning to act. It resembles rather an actor 
 learning a new part, or the left hand learning what the 
 right hand has already learnt to perform {e.g. writing). 
 That is to say, he learns far more rapidly than a child. 
 
 Psychological experiments on such disorders of 
 
36 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 personality show that a great deal of past experience 
 is really present and utilisable and that the acquisition 
 of knowledge and activities thereby becomes sur- 
 prisingly easy and rapid. Many cases are now on 
 record where a new personality is built up in this way, 
 differing sometimes in tastes and temperament from 
 the one formerly present. Then, more or lesssuddenly, 
 — often after a period of shock, stupor, or a ' hysterical ' 
 fit, — the old personality appears on the stage, which 
 is completely ignorant of all that has happened since 
 its disappearance. But, again, such dissociation is 
 not complete. It is not due to a sudden and com- 
 plete transverse block of one stream of consciousness, 
 and its temporary replacement by a second stream. 
 The first stream has been running throughout as an 
 undercurrent, ready to appear in dreams or in hypnosis, 
 or whenever the second stream is, so to speak, off its 
 guard and allows the depressed (repressed) under- 
 current to come to the surface. Hence on recovery 
 of the normal personality, all that has occurred during 
 the appearance of the second personality may be 
 obtained in the hypnotised state of the normal per- 
 sonality, although in the waking state the normal 
 personality is ' not at home ' to it. Similarly in the 
 case of Irfene, when she was enacting the drama of 
 her mother's illness and the tragic circumstances of 
 her mother's death, she was 'not at home' to her 
 environment. She received no conversation through 
 the ear, and took no notice of what she saw. Yet, 
 under favourable conditions, with a pencil in the hand, 
 such subjects have written answers to questions that 
 were put to them, bearing on their ordinary life. In 
 other words, the normal personality persists as an 
 undercurrent which can be tapped under suitable ex- 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 37 
 
 perimental conditions, in this instance by a kind of 
 automatic writing. It is not the reigning personality 
 that receives the conrersation and guides the hand 
 that writes the replies. Indeed the limb may prove 
 to be insensitive to pain at the time of writing : its 
 movements and sensations are dissociated from the 
 reigning personality. 
 
 The dissociation may thus involve not merely a 
 mental dissociation (say, a loss of memory or even a 
 change of personality), but also a 'somatic' 
 dissociation, in which a part of the body be- Somatic 
 comes nervously dissociated from the rest tion. 
 and is no longer controlled by the reigning 
 personality. In this way may arise ' functional ' 
 paralyses, contractures or spasmodic movements, loss 
 of sensation, or exaggerated sensation, — that is to say, 
 a want of control over the movements or sensations of 
 a part of the body. Yet when the subject is, so to 
 speak, ' off his guard ' or ' not himself,' these sensations 
 or movements return to the normal. During sleep 
 such a paralysed limb may move, or a mute person 
 will shout out. A deaf person will blink when an 
 unexpected noise is suddenly produced, showing that 
 the stimulus does gain access, though not to the reign- 
 ing personal consciousness. A limb which gives no 
 response to pin-pricks will never suffer harm from 
 accidental burns or other injury ; a person whose eyes, 
 when tested, are blind to objects other than those to 
 which he turns his gaze, will nevertheless avoid 
 stumbling over objects placed in his path, and will be 
 able to box or to carry out other activities, showing 
 that peripheral vision is there, although he is not 
 conscious of receiving (is ' not at home ' to) im- 
 pressions from this source. 
 
38 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 Enough has been said regarding psychological ex- 
 periment on the normal and disordered mind to in- 
 dicate the proper line of treatment in such 
 Treatment, functional nervous (somatic) or mental dis- 
 turbances. These disturbances are prim- 
 arily of mental (emotional) origin, due to the dis- 
 integration caused by a conflict of incompatible mental 
 experiences or perhaps by sudden shock. Conse- 
 quently the treatment must be directed to restoring 
 the normal integration by careful and painstaking talks, 
 by the study of associations, by the policy of confes- 
 sion and re-education. When other methods fail, 
 hypnosis often proves the easiest means of obtaining 
 dissociated memories. 
 
 Thus a patient of mine was afflicted with the con- 
 dition known as claustrophobia, — an unreasoning fear 
 of being unable to escape from a small room. The 
 fear had come to him since he was invalided from 
 France for neurasthenia, and I was unable to find 
 out its cause, until, under mild hypnosis, with the 
 greatest persuasion, I elicited from him the long- 
 forgotten memories of being thrown, when seven years 
 old, into a coal cellar by his elder sister after a quarrel, 
 and being pushed into a dark pantry by his mother 
 after being thrashed for loitering on his way from 
 school. His sister, he remembered, shot the bolt in 
 the coal cellar ; ultimately someone else let him out. 
 His mother locked the door on him in the pantry 
 which, having no window, was dark : he kicked and 
 struggled there for at least five minutes. Before 
 waking him, I suggested that he would clearly recall 
 these memories henceforth, which he did. And on 
 coming clearly to understand the origin of his dread 
 of small enclosed spaces, the claustrophobia at once 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 39 
 
 began to disappear. This same soldier on admission 
 had complained of the fear of a man coming from be- 
 hind him and gripping his throat. On pressing him 
 for further details he described a little dark man in a 
 sailor cap, standing at the corner of a square. The 
 only man he could recall, resembling him, was a certain 
 dentist whom he had recently visited, but he could 
 not recall any incident in his past life connected with 
 the sailor or with the gripping of his throat. He was 
 especially distressed by these fears and visions when 
 he lay down to sleep, and they were accompanied by 
 pains in the left arm and over the heart and by a sink- 
 ing feeling in the abdomen as if he were falling. (In 
 civil life he had been an ornamental plasterer, but for 
 fear of falling he could not go to any height on a 
 scaffold.) As persuasion in the waking state failed 
 to recall the source of his fears, although it elicited all 
 the emotional expression of the fears (he would clutch 
 his left arm and breast, complain of a tingling sensa- 
 tipn in them, experience pain over the heart, but yet 
 could not give these experiences any cause), I pro- 
 ceeded to use more powerful suggestion by getting 
 him into a comfortably drowsy state, whereupon he 
 at once associated the throat-gripping with the fear of 
 a dentist who had recently given him an anaesthetic, 
 which produced a feeling of gripping at his throat 
 and a struggle for breath. The sailor-portion of his 
 hallucination was only cleared up after very great 
 persuasive effort, whereupon he recalled an episode 
 when he was quite a small boy and had been naughty, 
 and his mother had frightened him by telling him that 
 a sailor, standing at the corner of the square on to 
 which his house looked, would come for him, where- 
 upon he crept in terror under the sofa. The arm-pain 
 
4° APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 was also accounted for with the greatest difificulty. 
 All at once he obtained a terrifying glimpse of a shell 
 coming, he himself being in a billet, then rushing for 
 safety behind a door jamb and next being forcibly 
 pulled by the left arm down into a cellar. The 
 revival of these past memories, and their explanation 
 to him as the source of his fears, pains and visions, 
 produced an extraordinarily rapid improvement in his 
 condition. He immediately professed that his mind 
 was much lighter. He began to sleep far better. 
 That evening, as he expressed it, he felt " quite elated," 
 " as if a weight were off my mind." 
 
 In many cases of spasmodic movement or paralysis, 
 I have been able to cure them at once with the 
 revival of the forgotten, dissociated memories which 
 produced the disorder. 
 
 Such somatic disorders disappear, as might be 
 expected, with the return of the complete personality : 
 mental healing in such functional cases is accom- 
 panied by bodily healing. 
 
 Merely to attend to the bodily symptoms, e.g. to 
 apply an electric current to the part affected, or to 
 suggest, in hypnosis or in the waking state. 
 Treat- '^^^ ^^ '"'^" 8^'° proper control over it 
 
 ment. can lead to no genuine cure so long as 
 
 there persist anxiety, fear, etc., deter- 
 mined by more or less completely repressed or 
 dissociated memories which cannot be faced. True, 
 the patient may regain his powers 'of speech or move- 
 ment, but the underlying mental disturbance remains 
 behind, ready to show itself at any moment in some 
 fresh disorder. To proceed in this way is to imitate 
 a surgeon who might attempt to get rid of an abscess 
 by opening it where it pointed, neglecting to follow 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 41 
 
 up the pus to the original source from which it had 
 tracked. 
 
 There are, of course, various cases of functional 
 somatic disorder where 'local operation,' as I may- 
 term it, ts successful. These are cases where the 
 paralysis, spasmodic movement or contracture per- 
 sists as a habit after the main mental trouble (perhaps 
 never severe) has passed away, or when it has arisen 
 not wholly unconsciously after shock, but owing 
 to a state of temporary extreme suggestibility during 
 which the patient has more or less consciously 
 responded to suggestions arising from local pain or 
 from some unpleasant situation. These cases are 
 often of slow origin, of long duration and complicated 
 by the existence of wounds. It is here that local 
 suggestion, discomfort, isolation and the like, com- 
 pelling the patient to pull himself together and to 
 resume control over himself, are justifiable and most 
 successful. 
 
 Repression is often imperfect so that the incom- 
 pletely dissociated experience finds its expression in 
 various disguised forms. These have 
 been especially studied in the case ot rmression. 
 dreams, where distortion, condensation, 
 symbolism and other psychological processes working 
 on the emotional experiences of the day-time have 
 been identified and distinguished. Complete disT 
 sociation generally occurs suddenly through shock ; 
 it is characteristic of a ' hysterical ' condition. The 
 disorders of partial repression, to the consideration 
 of which we are now passing, arise gradually from 
 the strain of continued anxiety : they are character- 
 istic of a ' neurasthenic ' condition. The former 
 arises from a sudden breakdown, the latter from a 
 
42 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 gradual wearing-down. The neurasthenic state arises 
 from incessant strain, perpetual worry over responsi- 
 bilities, perpetual conflict between inclination and 
 duty, perpetual endeavour to banish discordant ex- 
 periences from the mind. Hence, with headache, 
 insomnia, irritability, loss of power of concentration 
 and of self-confidence, arise false ideas, based on, and 
 distorted from, more or less imperfect repression, — 
 ideas of persecution, hallucinations, and the like. 
 Thus instead of continuing to reproach himself, he 
 comes to believe that others are talking disparagingly 
 about him. Or he sees imaginary persons before or 
 behind him or he performs more or less meaningless 
 actions which are really a distortion of the imper- 
 fectly repressed complex. 
 
 A normal person, when subject to strain and near 
 the point of neurasthenia or nervous exhaustion, can 
 
 _ , , reason about his worries and can pull him- 
 Treatraent ,. , t, , , .... 
 
 of imper- self together. But beyond a certam limit, 
 
 feet re- even in the strongest of us, self-control is 
 no longer possible. It is absolutely use- 
 less to try to cure the majority of such patients by 
 the policy of telling them to try and forget all about 
 their worries, to occupy themselves with other 
 matters, such as farm work, carpentering and the 
 like. Their condition has arisen because they could 
 not adapt themselves to their environment owing to 
 their emotional stress. That stress is too great for 
 normal solution. In the long run, perhaps, time 
 may relieve it ; but the only rational method of treat- 
 ment is to unearth the repressed experience, to dis- 
 entangle and to reveal to the subject the mental pro- 
 cesses responsible for the distortion, and to get him 
 to face squarely what he has been vainly endeavour- 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 43 
 
 ing to shun. A man might as well be asked to for- 
 get his religion, his patriotism or his politics. These, 
 like the troubles of the neurasthenic, are due to 
 complexes, — systems of ideas firmly connected with 
 emotional experiences. Such complexes colour all 
 his decisions, even those which he believes are 
 arrived at on logical, intellectual grounds. They can 
 only be changed through a conversion of the subject, 
 not by convincing him against his will, but by using 
 every device to get him willingly and actively to 
 accept and to adopt a new and proper attitude to his 
 past experiences. Hence we carefully unravel these 
 more or less repressed experiences of the past, we 
 get the patient to understand their relation to his 
 present troubles, we persuade by the force of reason, 
 we suggest (in the waking or hypnotic state) by 
 the force of new and healthier complexes, until he 
 can face without undue emotion the experiences 
 which have troubled him, clearly comprehending 
 the chain of mental processes responsible for his 
 condition. 
 
 Such is the modern method of treating hysterical 
 and neurasthenic disorders. Its success is the 
 surest proof of the trustworthiness, of its basis. Its 
 independence of the old psychology is absolute : 
 it is intimately dependent on the more _ 
 modern psychology with which indeed its lation of 
 very existence is bound up. The results psychology 
 
 . to C&S65 of 
 
 can only be to revolutionise psychological nervous 
 
 theory and to stimulate further psycho- break- 
 , . , ^ down, 
 
 logical experiment. 
 
 I have included this subject here for several 
 
 reasons. 
 
 In the first place, every new treatment when first 
 
44 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 applied constitutes an experiment, and we are thus 
 justified in regarding this treatment as being based 
 on psychological experiment. 
 
 Secondly, we are brought to a totally new stand- 
 point of the position of functional nervous disorders. 
 They are essentially of mental origin and 
 
 The special demand treatment, not by those who 
 training of , , . ' . , . -^ , ^ 
 
 physicians, have merely specialised in the effects of 
 
 specific injuries of the brain, cord or nerves 
 and in movement and sensation, and have come to 
 pay no attention to disorders of will and feeling; 
 nor by asylum doctors whose life is largely spent 
 among cases of advanced and more or less hopeless 
 insanity. A new class of medical man, educated in 
 the psychological theories and practice which I have 
 described, is being trained. One centre of instruc- 
 tion has already sprung into existence during the war 
 and others must be instituted. 
 
 A new class of war-hospital is also being established 
 to deal with these cases of functional nervous disorder. 
 . Nothing is so fatal as to group them with 
 
 tution of asylum patients : one of their chief worries. 
 Special which has to be alleviated, is the fear of 
 °^' ■ going insane. Almost equally harmful is 
 their admission to the wards of a general military 
 hospital, where they are generally laughed at by the 
 other patients, receive no expert treatment, and find 
 the atmosphere most distasteful. 
 
 Thirdly, it has to be emphasized that the treatment 
 of cases of nervous breakdown, by specially trg,ined 
 
 physicians, in specially allocated hospitals, 
 Their per- ■ ' r , o ,. xt 
 
 manence. '^ "°' °' merely fleeting concern. Neur- 
 asthenia and similar psycho-neuroses have 
 not originated merely in the past four years. Nor in 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 45 
 
 pre-war times has their occurrence been confined to 
 
 members of the wealthy classes or of the Uberal 
 
 professions. 
 
 In Sweden, neurasthenia was found to be rather 
 
 commoner in the working than in the upper classes. 
 
 In a German industrial sanatorium about 
 
 seventy per cent, of the admissions were guencv" 
 
 nervous cases, the breakdown in by far the and distri- 
 
 majority of which was caused by overstrain. ''"''°" ?f 
 
 cases 01 
 In various rural districts of the United nervous 
 
 Kingdom, neurasthenia is frequent enough, break- 
 j -x • -11 • ^u ■ • down, 
 
 and It IS especially common m the mmmg 
 
 districts of England and Wales ; thus a surprisingly 
 large number of cases of shell-shock in this war have 
 arisen among soldiers who were miners in peace- 
 time. Hitherto in this country during peace-time, 
 such patients have had no treatment beyond a bottle 
 of medicine at the out-patient department of a neigh- 
 bouring general hospital. They have not been ad- 
 mitted to a general hospital unless they have shown 
 some functional paralysis, nor to an asylum until their 
 condition has become one of certifiable insanity. 
 
 Lastly, we have come to revise our notions of the 
 position of ' functional nervous ' disorders. As 
 Bernard Hart has pointed out, they are to 
 
 be regarded as «««/■«/ disorders, inasmuch J**.^.^^" , 
 
 , , . , , . , finition of 
 
 as we know nothmg of the organic changes 'nervous ' 
 
 in the brain which accompany them, any ^^nd ' men- 
 
 <.u 1 .u ■ u tal'dis- 
 
 more than we know the organic changes orders 
 
 which accompany the mental condition 
 
 we call sleep. On the other hand, we have come to 
 
 regard the insanities, which hitherto have been called 
 
 mental disorders, as in reality nervous disorders ; that 
 
 is to say, they are dependent on far more easily dis- 
 
46 APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 cernible, more serious and more permanent changes 
 
 in the cells of the brain. 
 
 How far untreated cases of functional disorder, 
 
 how far other temporary mental disorders arising from 
 
 toxins, fatigue, etc., pass over the border 
 
 ^'?^ir into a condition of certifiable insanity is 
 
 relation. •' 
 
 a matter of dispute, but that they do at least 
 
 sometimes so pass over is an undoubted fact. How 
 
 far early cases of insanity can be prevented by early 
 
 treatment from reaching a graver incurable stage is 
 
 also uncertain. But we are beginning to recognise 
 
 that in all disorders, e.g. of the heart, kidneys, etc., 
 
 the main hope of recovery lies in early treatment 
 
 when the patient is complaining merely of subjective 
 
 symptoms, before the signs of recognisable organic 
 
 changes develop. 
 
 In this respect insanity may be compared to 
 phthisis, and functional nervous disorders to recur- 
 ring attacks of bronchitis. Just as phthisis depends 
 on the exposure of a sufficiently suitable soil to 
 sufficiently prolonged infection, just as it may be 
 cured by sufficiently early treatment and by removal 
 to a sufficiently favourable environment, so we may 
 regard with hope the opportunities of an early and 
 adequate treatment of insanity. So too, just as pro- 
 longed bronchitis is fraught with danger in the case 
 of a patient who inherits or develops a soil favour- 
 able for tubercular infection, so cases of protracted 
 functional nervous disorders must to some extent 
 finally swell the ranks of the insane. 
 
 The difficulties of early treatment are enhanced 
 not merely by the lack of physicians trained in 
 modern psychology, not merely by the lack of 
 hospitals which they can attend as out-patients or be 
 
APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY 47 
 
 treated as temporary in-patients, but also by the 
 
 popular ignorance and prejudice existing in regard 
 
 to disorders of the mind. What are _. . 
 
 , , ^ , ,. , The need 
 
 needed are courses of pubhc lectures on for popu- 
 
 the subject, pointing out, in language •^'' "". 
 which the people can understand, the 
 psychology of disorders of the mind, the origin of 
 the fears, false shame and prejudice concerning 
 them, the importance and hopefulness of early 
 treatment, and the narrow line which separates 
 mental good-health, mental disturbance, and mental 
 disease. 
 
 Thus psychology in its modern form, as the study 
 (by observation and experiment) of the normal and 
 abnormal mind, is bound to play an in- 
 creasing part alike in industry, juris- ^^'^^ "" 
 prudence, education, aesthetics, and 
 medicine. The urgent need now is for institutes 
 of applied psychology in each of our largest cities, 
 which may serve as centres for attacking these 
 practical problems with the help of experts trained 
 both in psychology and in the particular branch in 
 which its help is needed, and with the active, en- 
 lightened sympathy of the general public. 
 
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