Book._.i22'__. COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY AND THE TEACHER BY H. CRICHTON MILLER M.A., M.D., EDITOR "FUNCTIONAL NERVE DISEASES," HON. DIRECTOR TAVISTOCK CLINIC FOR FUNCTIONAL NERVE CASES W New York THOMAS SELTZER 1922 k6\ Copyright, 1922, by Thomas Seltzer, Inc. All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States or America MOV 18 '?2 © CI A 6 8 (; 9 7 8 nrwO I To MY CHILDREN ' ^ token of my earnest effort to understand and inspire them; gratitude for all that they have taught me; •d in the hope that it may help them to be better parents than their father — I DEDICATE THIS BOOK PREFACE ' I ''HIS volume is based on a course of lec- "*■ tures delivered by the author to educa- tionalists under the auspices of the Tavistock Clinic for Functional Nerve Cases. The in- terest aroused by the lectures, and the appreci- ation expressed, seemed to warrant their ap- pearance in the present form ; but a few words of explanation are necessary. These chapters are addressed not only to those who are professional teachers, but to the wider public of those whose business in life calls them to share in the teaching of the young. They do not restrict themselves to modern analytical psychology, but, as the reader will see, they cover a certain amount of the older psychology that in the author's opinion merits emphasis. As far as the newer views are concerned, it will be seen that no attempt is made either to present the views of one school exclusively, nor yet to gloss over the differences between the two schools of Vienna and Zurich. The existence of these differences is of fundamental importance in two directions. In the first place, it is not 5 Preface recognized by many who follow the literature of psycho-analysis how completely contrasted are the philosophies implied by the teaching of the two schools. The "thorough-going determinism" of Freud is far removed from the free will implicit in all Jung's work. In the second place, the existence of these differences is the very obvious justification of a detached and critical attitude. It is a mat- ter for regret, though not for surprise, that this justification is not recognized by the founders of either school, and that they follow the example of most pioneers in resisting com- promise and criticism alike. Educationalists are, above all, people en- titled to exert freedom of criticism; for their interest is focused at a point where many paths meet: art and philosophy, body and mind, memory and imagination, science and religion — these are only a few of the paths that con- verge in their sphere. To offer to education- alists a panacea or a master key is to write oneself down an arrogant fanatic! It is to be hoped that these pages, in spite of a note of dogmatism that the reader may recognize, will be read as the contribution of a physician who is profoundly convinced that his sphere of action is and must always be of secondary importance. To the writer the application 6 Preface of psychological methods to the cure of nervous disorders is to their application in education as the cure of consumption is to its prevention. But consumption can only be prevented through the efforts of those who understand at least something of the laws in- volved in its treatment. It is not necessary that they should have been patients in a sana- torium. At the same time, three facts emerge from the analogy which are worth considera- tion. First, the pathologists tell us that nearly every town dweller, however healthy he may appear to be, harbours the tubercle bacillus. Similarly every educationalist, be he jlever so well-adjusted, harbours repressions that are potentially harmful. Secondly, every one en- gaged in the prevention of phthisis would profit from, or does profit from, those hygienic measures that constitute his propaganda. In like manner, there is not a school-teacher, nor yet a parent, who would not profit in his or her mental life from those principles of men- tal hygiene which this volume is meant to out- line. Finally, the work of preventing tuber- culosis is too vast and too pressing to be rele- gated exclusively to those who have had the experience of tubercular disease and sana- torium treatment. In the same way the appli- cation of analytical psychology to the needs 7 Preface of the young is too urgent and too extensive to be committed to the few, who by reason of a nervous breakdown or otherwise have had the privilege of sane analytical treatment. Those who share the writer's conviction, that it is for the new generation that the new teaching is most important, will also share his impatience with the obstructionists. Analytical views have spread so rapidly in the last eighteen years that the reactionaries will soon be negligible. But, as happens in every new movement with unfailing certainty, the more serious obstruction comes from within. It comes from the jealousy of the pioneers and their immediate followers, who, with the conscious motive of safeguarding the movement, proclaim loudly and indignantly that no one can heal who has not himself been healed, that no one can initiate who has not himself been initiated, and that no one can preach who has not been ordained. The un- conscious motive of the caste seems to elude the analyst's self-scrutiny, and he offers a sorry advertisement of his own vaunted ad- justment and freedom from complexes when in slightly altered phraseology he protests: "Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and we forbade him, because he foUoweth not us." If we are anywise fit to 8 Preface be teachers of the young, we shall recognize that no knowledge, creed, shibboleth, nor initiation can qualify us for our task, but primarily that vision which allows us to per- ceive the child's needs, his difficulties, and his possibilities. In the hope that these chap- ters may contribute at least in a small measure to that clearer vision, they are offered to teachers who are yet content to be learners. I take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to Miss L. V. Southwell, M.A., who has fulfilled the function, not only of an efficient and untiring secretary, but also of a most clear-sighted collaborator. To my wife I owe the debt which every writer owes to a critic who is both candid and constructive. H. C. M. Harley Street, London, W. NOTE THE substance of this book was contained in a course of lectures to teachers and others, given under the auspices of the Tavistock Clinic for Functional Nerve Cases, during the Spring Term, 1921. Some fresh material has been added. It is proposed to issue shortly two similar volumes entitled, The New Psychology and the Parent and The Psychology and the Preacher. These books are intended for different groups of readers, and they will be similar as regards some of the subject matter. They will differ in presentation and in the subject matter of the remainder. The additional matter in The New Psychology and the Preacher will be based upon a series of lectures delivered at Mirfield and at Westminster College, Cambridge. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I Introductory 13 II Authority and Suggestibility . . 23 III Reality and Phantasy ... 47 IV Emotional Development: the Boy . 73 V Emotional Development: the Girl . 95 VI The Unconscious Motive . . .121 VII Mental Mechanisms . . . .145 VIII Dream Symbolism . . . .169 IX The Herd Instinct and the Herd Ideal 195 X Educational Methods . . .213 II CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY The New Psychology and Psycho-Analysis. In What Sense Is It "New?" Not in the sense of conflicting with all pre-, existing theories. The Contribution of Clinical Psychology to Educational Problems. What has the New Psychology to Offer the Teacher? Not a magical solution. Analysis not applicable to the normal child. Analysis and self-knowledge. Test of its Value: Power to give the child spiritual freedom. Power to help the child in three ways. Purpose and Limitations of the Book. INTRODUCTORY ^nr^HE title of this book needs a brief expla- ■*- nation. To some people it will suggest a disingenuous evasion of the word "psycho- analysis." The term has been avoided out of respect for the limits to its application laid down by the Freudian School, who hold that "The Freudian theory and technique, and these alone, constitute psycho-analysis." ^ While recognizing the infinite debt which psychologists owe to the pioneer work of Freud, in discovering and applying the psy- cho-analytic method, the writer is unable to accept all the conclusions of the Freudian theory, and finds himself therefore debarred from using the term in its technical sense. Some critics will suggest that the principles discussed in this book ought not to be labelled "new." The psychological method which is outlined will seem to them merely an elaborate way of arriving at familiar conclusions. It should therefore be stated at the outset that this psychology is not "new" in the sense of ^ Psycho-analysis J by Barbara Low. George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1920. p. 10. IS The New Psychology and the Teacher conflicting with all pre-existing theories. On the contrary its conclusions have often reaf- firmed those which the experience of man- kind has long ago evolved and treasured. It is undeniable that analytical psychology re- peats a good deal of the wisdom of the nursery; many of the dictates of common sense that "continuous experience of the real" ; and it often follows with slow feet to a goal which the insight of poets and prophets reached at a bound. But if it is not always revolutionary, its method is sufficiently dis- tinct from that of the academic psychology to justify and demand the use of the word "new." No one who has studied its concep- tions can fail to realize that they introduce a fresh era into psychological thought. Lastly, we may perhaps borrow a reflection from an exponent of "the new discipline," and take refuge in the thought that "The people who seek to prove that things are not new are usually those who have not the smallest inten- tion of making use of them, whether new or old."^ While it is true that the outlook of analy- tical psychology does not invariably lead to ^ The Child's Path to Freedom, by Norman MacMunn. G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., 1 921. p. 52. 16 Introductory new conclusions, it certainly leads to some which are sharply opposed to accepted theories, and educational methods have been heavily criticized from the standpoint of clinical psychology. In defence of the clinical psychologist's intrusion into educational ques- ' tions, it must be pointed out that he has to deal with many of the products of educa- tional failure: they constitute a more effective criticism than any he could invent. And if it is argued that the study of psycho-pathology unfits one for the understanding of normal types, it must be pointed out that while psychology remained with its attention fixed upon normal mental processes, it made no startling advance; and that the infusion of new life into it came from the medical psy- chologist's investigation of the phenomena of abnormality. We pass on to ask what it is that the new psychology has to ofifer to the teacher. What are they looking for — these people who flock to meetings on psycho-analysis, and invest in books on the new psychology? Some of them are unmistakably in search of a swift and magical solution of educational problems. The burden of their profession weighs heavily upon them, and the word has gone round that the new knowledge has an answer to all it& 17 The New Psychology aod the Teacher difficulties. This is of course a vain quest. There is no magical and external solution to such problems as confront the teacher, and no formula that will suddenly make him master of the intricacies of the child's mind. Some approach the new psychology mainly with the idea of analysing the children they teach. The writer is convinced that this should not be the purpose of its study. The analysis of the child and of the adolescent is the most delicate task that can be assayed. It is not required in the case of the normal child ; and the abnormal child should never be ex- posed to amateur analysis. There is a symbol which constantly occurs in dreams — the sym- bol of the tooth. It represents the individual's equipment for life, and especially his mental equipment, of which a small part is visible, and the greater part unseen and rooted in the unconscious. We may make use of it to em- phasize our present point. The child's teeth represent only a temporary adjustment to life, but the dentist knows that they need to be handled with extraordinary care; otherwise the permanent teeth that should follow will be impaired. The mental adjustment of the child or the adolescent needs to be treated with equal caution. The study of the unconscious mind may of i8 Introductory course do much to quicken the teacher's power of observation and understanding of the child's mental processes; but even this is not the greatest service it can render. Its chief value lies, not in the direct light that it throws on the child, but in its application to the teacher's own psychology. It is like the indirect illumination used in microscope work: the light is not thrown on the object that is being studied, but upon a reflector, which needs ta be at the correct angle. The chief gain which the teacher may look for from his study of the subject is this kind of illumination of his own mind, a new power of self-knowledge which will give him a clearer sight and a greater freedom of action in helping the child. The test of the value of a study of analytical psychology lies in its ability to increase the teacher's power to give the child spiritual freedom. The Freudian School of Psycho- Analysis claims to have established the fact of a ''thorough-going determinism in the men- tal sphere." This is not the place to examine the evidence for this view. Let us grant that the sense of spontaneity in human life may be an illusion. If this is so, it is an illusion which the writer believes that all education- alists would do well to cherish very jealously. 19 The New Psychology and the Teacher It seems to him an essential part of the equip- ment of the teacher or parent who sets out to make it possible for his children to attain to spiritual freedom. In working towards this' goal, the first service that analytical psychol- ; ogy can render is, as has been said, the freeing / of the teacher's own mental and emotional life from bias and repression. Furthermore, it can increase his power to help the child in three principal ways — in his adjustment to reality, in his adjustment to authority and to the herd, and in his sex education. The conception outlined above of the way in which analytical psychology can be of the greatest service to the teacher sets definite lim- its to the scope of this book. Its purpose is to answer some of the questions of those who are asking what is implied by the analytical standpoint towards oneself, and education, and life in general. The study of analytical psy- chology has clearly reached a point at which it has become part of the thought of educated people; and it is no longer possible, even if it were desirable, to regard it as the exclusive concern of specialists and their patients. Any one who speaks on this subject may be sure of applause if he remarks that a little knowl- edge is a dangerous thing. This is unques- tionably true of the new psychology; but it is 20 Introductory also true that a little vision is a great deal bet- ter than total blindness. Those whose busi- ness it is to study the development of the child should be least of all likely to confuse the little vision vs^ith the thorough understanding, or to underrate the intricacy of the process of analysis. This book offers no encouragement to its readers to assume the functions of the psycho-analysts. Nor is it intended to suggest that self-analysis has more than a limited value. When all is said, however, it is only a minority who will have the opportunity of being analyzed : the majority will have to cre- ate their own experience of analysis for them- selves. That experience, especially if it is a rather silent process, may be of great value. It will not be entirely pleasing to the individ- ual concerned, and those who are not serious will have no inducement to go far with it; for, unlike the more sociable and conversational methods of taking an interest in psycho-anal- ysis, it demands hard work and perseverance. It is with the idea of assisting some such expe- rience as this that the writer has accepted the responsibility of promoting "a little knowl- edge." One further point should be mentioned. The limits of the book have made it unavoid- able that some subjects should be touched upon 21 { The New Psychology and the Teacher with a misleading degree of simplicity. This is particularly true of the points at which references have been made to the therapeutic aspect of analytical psychology. For example, no mention whatever has been made to the principle of psycho-physical interaction and to the part played by the physical factor in neurosis. This omission is typical of others which are equally deliberate; but the attention of the reader should be drawn to the limita- tions in the scope of the book. 22 CHAPTER II AUTHORITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY Education : The two aspects. Their place in educational theories — The old regime. Froebel. Montessori. The goal of education. Urge to completeness. Suggestibility: ^ Suggestion defined and illustrated. Its function in childhood. Its use and abuse in the adult. The Child's Experience of Authority: The ultra-suggestible. The rebel. The unconscious motive for and against authority. The Teacher's Exercise of Authority: The unconscious motive for and against it. The instinct of patronage. The fear of being ousted. The potter and the clay. The use of analytical psychology. ^ The term suggestibility is used throughout this chapter in the sense distinguished by Baudouin as acceptivity, v. Suggestion and Auto-suggestion, by Charles Baudouin. Geo. Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1920. AUTHORITY AND SUGGESTIBILITY THERE are roughly two aspects to edu- cation : the one, the transmission of racial experience; the other, the development of the individual psyche. Each makes a different demand upon the child; and, if the teacher is to get below the surface in his educational methods, it is essential that he should set him- self to realize the meaning of these demands that are made by himself or others, and also to understand the nature of the child's reac- tion to them. These two aspects of educa- tion, the presentation of authority and the presentation of reality, will be discussed in this and the following chapter. Before entering upon this discussion, some- thing must be said of the general nature of the educational process as it appears to-day. A very rough survey of the recent history of education is enough to show that even the effective recognition of the two-fold function of education is a notable advance. There still remain many traces of an era in which all the emphasis was laid on the transmission of learning and experience, the child be- 25 The New Psychology and the Teacher ing at best but a passive recipient of these blessings. These were the days of enforced attention, when education was primarily a matter of discipline. The liberating influence of Froebel brought in a better era: the child's interest was no longer to be forced, but to be set free; and the most successful teacher was he who was most competent in stimulating the interest of the child. Since then, yet another revolutionary change has been taking place, and the old conception of discipline has undergone a fresh transformation. The experiments of Madame Montessori have re- vealed the amazing rapidity and the extraor- dinary ease with which a child who has been allowed his freedom in a suitable environment acquires the necessary knowledge with the minimum of restraint. These changes have redressed the balance in the conception of education. It is realized now that the de- velopment of the individual psyche is a far more important thing that the mere acquisition of knowledge; that the mediate experience which has been handed on to the child with such a gesture of beneficence is really far less time-saving, and far less val- uable than the immediate experience which he gains for himself, if he is put in an environ- 26 Authority and Suggestibility ment in which he can gain it fairly easily and fairly cheaply. The two aspects of education emphasize, respectively, interest, producing self-expres- sion; and attention, developing self-control. An educational system which is based upon the former principle amounts to a challenge to our whole outlook on the individual's life. It is useless to apply the theories of freedom and responsibility to the first years of a child's life and then to place him in an environment which demands of him first and foremost that he should submit to routine and drudgery. If a boy is to be sent to a public school with a perfectly rigid and stereotyped curriculum, and if he is afterwards to be drafted into the business or profession which has been chosen for him by his parents, it might well be ar- gued that his education should from the first be frankly dedicated to the object of control- ling his attention and ignoring his interest. But if there is any faith in the possibility of the child finding a career in which he can truly express himself, then it would appear equally logical and consistent to direct his education along lines that may possibly lead to a lesser capacity for drudgery, but an in- finitely greater power of self-expression, and a greater self to express. 27 The New Psychology and the Teacher In contending that the primary emphasis in education should lie upon spontaneous inter- est, it is not necessary to underestimate the value of attention. The clinical psychologist has special opportunities of realizing the im- portance of this factor in the individual's equipment for life. Failure to develop ade- quate power of attentive control often mani- fests itself in later life in ill-health of body and mind, and it falls to the physician to cor- rect it as best he may by a process of re-educa- tion. The neurotic patient is often the victim of indecision : he cannot make up his mind on any subject; he has lost all will-power. The tendency in modern psychology is to make will and attention synonymous; and it is a tendency which is supported by the experience of psy- chotherapists. The temperament that is sometimes contemptuously dismissed as "neu- rotic" is often endowed with great gifts and capabilities, which have been allowed to run to waste for lack of the necessary training. Much can be done in later life by a careful technique of re-education; but the original failure in the early training of the faculties of attentive control has been responsible for much irretrievable loss both in individual happiness and social usefulness. In the light of these discoveriesi, how is the 28 Authority and Suggestibility goal of the child's development to be con- ceived? We may speak of it broadly as self- realization, using the term to include the com- plete adjustment of the individual to life in all its aspects. Towards this goal the child is impelled by an energy which is not derived from the influence of parents or teachers, or from any external source. The impulse to- wards growth is simply the primary biological urge to completeness which is found in every living thing. We come into the world with it, and it remains as the constant impulse to- wards a goal which is only attained when we reach maturity, and either express or sub- limate all our instinctive ambitions and poten- tialities. It is not primarily spiritual, but bio- logical, and it is largely unconscious. It fol- lows that a great deal of the child's growth, a great many of his ambitions and aspirations, are directed towards the primary, central and perfectly unconscious motive of ultimate par- enthood, because this is the essential biolog- ical expression of maturity. The human herd has become so complex and bewildering a thing that this great fact of parenthood, being the token and visible symbol of maturity, is largely obscured. Moreover, the human ideal of development is not purely biological, but has become enriched by ethical, social, and 29 The New Psychology and the Teacher religious conceptions. In spite of this, the original, biological nature of the impulse to growth and to completeness is not to be ignored. It is evident that, though this principle of growth is universal, it is not irresistible. It is infinitely liable to hindrance and deviation! and delay at all points. The child's develop- ment towards completeness is very easily thwarted. If the urge to maturity is primar- ily biological, the barriers in its way seem to be almost invariably psychological; and for these barriers parents and teachers are com-, monly responsible. We put up a barrier when\ we restrain children unnecessarily; when we' put difficulties in the way of their self-expres- sion; when without reason we demand that they should inhibit interest and activity which seem to them to be perfectly harmless. This is the barrier of authority. The second barrier is raised when we offer to the child a world that is too harsh, too puzzling and too difficult for its powers of adjustment. This is the bar- rier of reality. These are the two great prob- lems for the child ; and the test of his achieve- ment is whether, when he reaches maturity, he has made the three great practical adjustments that life demands: the adjustment to society; the adjustment to the mate (actual or poten- 30 Authority and Suggestibility tial) ; and the adjustment to the Infinite. Fail- ure at either of these points speaks of hindered development and the falling-short of complete self-realization. The conception of education that has been outlined above is one that underlies the studies in this book. For the sake of clearness it seemed well to state it at the outset, though in a somewhat brief and dogmatic form. It is hoped that the rest of the book explains and amplifies it, and gives to the reader op- portunities of criticizing it in a more detailed form. Returning to the two aspects of education — the transmission of racial experience and the development of the individual psyche — we find that there are two characteristics of childhood that demand special study: the first is suggestibility, and the second is phantasy. Both have a genetic value; both are associated with development; and both, like the thymus gland, should entirely, or to a great extent, vanish by the time that the individual reaches maturity. Both tend to persist, and their per- sistence spells discord and inefficiency in the adult. This can generally be traced to some failure in the environment or upbringing of the individual; and since the teacher may be responsible for this, he needs to understand 31 The New Psychology and the Teacher the function of these two characteristics. The present chapter deals with the first — sugges- tibility, which is concerned with the child's reaction to authority. Suggestibility"^ may be defined as the attain- ment of a state of mind or the execution of an act upon an inadequate rational basis. It is, in I other words, blind acceptance of authority inl any form. We speak of the suggestibility of primitive peoples ; but a more obvious instance is our own susceptibility to the power of ad- vertisement. The whole function of the ad- vertisement manager, the salesman and the auctioneer, is to exploit the tendency to buy goods upon an inadequate rational basis. Equally obvious is the suggestibility of read- ers of the daily press, who accept opinions on politics, religion, art, or amusement, with the minimum of independent investigation. Nevertheless, in so far as we are mature, we suppose ourselves to have attained to the power of independent judgment, and to be no longer exposed to the abuses of suggestibility. There are some who are so much alive to these dangers that they would try to demand, even from the child, that his thought and action should be founded entirely upon a consciously rational basis. In so doing, they ignore an ^ V. supra, p. 24, note.' 32 Authority and Suggestibility important psychological distinction between the child and the adult. If the child is in- fluenced by the injunction that he shall wait until the 'bus stops before dismounting, he is manifesting a degree of suggestibility that is entirely advantageous both to himself and to the community. Suggestibility in the child has a genetic value, which lies in the possi- 'bility of transmitting rapidly to a child a great amount of racial experience, while he is still incapable of fully apprehending the rational basis of it. It is the substitution of mediate for immediate experience. We save him from breaking his neck by remembering our own early experiments in falling off a 'bus, and all the later considerations which have taught us to seek safety first. We cannot expect the child to apprehend the significance of the law of the conservation of energy, or any other restraining thought, when he is solely engaged with the idea of leaving the 'bus at the point nearest to the Zoo. Neither can we expect the child to take into consideration the demands of the herd. If he goes from the dining-room to the nursery, his one preoccupation is to get there. He sees no reason to waste time in stopping to shut the door; he has no objection to open doors: why should grown-ups? We rightly make use of suggestion to claim from 33 The New Psychology and the Teacher the child a compliance with the demands of the herd, for which he can realize no adequate reason. The two facts in the child's position which demand the use of suggestion are, there- fore, first, his inexperience of causal relations; and secondly, his inability to apprehend the claims of the community. Neither of these conditions should apply to the adult, but there are some who, in the latter respect, remain children all their lives. They prate about the liberty of the individual ; they whine over the income-tax; they fail at every point to visual- ize the reciprocal obligation of the unit and the herd. Most adults get past this stage of development, and grasp the collective aim of society. But it is only a minority that gets beyond that, to the parental view, which im- plies the readiness to sacrifice self-interest, not only for the social demands of this generation, but also, and still more so, for those of the next. Thus the child has to pass from an indi- vidual aim in life to a collective aim. But his judgment undergoes the reverse transforma- tion : he begins by being subject to the opinion of the elders who constitute his environ- ment; gradually this subjection should give way to an individual judgment in all matters that are vital. If we set ourselves primarily to fashion his conduct, we shall abuse his sug- 34 Authority and Suggestibility gestibility, and stunt the growth of his dis- crimination; if we ignore behaviour, and deal exclusively with his reason, we shall waste much precious time, risk many disasters, and produce a citizen of doubtful value. It must be our aim, therefore, to bring up children so that they respect all racial experience, and at the same time learn, in due course, to challenge all authority. Authority must not be regarded as ultimately binding, nor must it be disre- garded without respectful consideration. The destiny of the child is social efficiency; the problem of the child is psychical freedom; the obstacle to the child is authority; and the test of every child's development is his final attitude towards racial experience. The progress of the child towards this goal may be roughly represented in a diagram. The ffJtra SuqgestWe SolF reaf/SBf/on soc/a/ e/yyc/e/icy febel child starts from O on his journey, and at A meets the gate of authority. If that gate is 35 The New Psychology and the Teacher open, he passes straight on towards his goal. If it be shut, or insufficiently open, and he fails to pass through, his path deviates in one or two directions : either he becomes ultra-sug- gestible, and continues to accept authority in a childish way, or else he becomes the heretic, who rebels, with an equal failure of individual judgment, against all forms of authority. Whichever of these alternatives result from the clash with authority, the individual sets himself to weave a myth, the strands of which are inextricably mingled with his every thought and action. He cannot accept the truth involved in his situation, and therefore he has to explain away to himself his tendency to react too much or too little to authority. He has to satisfy himself that his undue plas- ticity in the face of authority is not what it seems, but a rational attitude; or that his un- due resistance to every form of authority is based on the superiority of his own judgment. These two types — the ultra-suggestible and the rebel — must be perfectly familiar to every observer of human nature. The ultra-sug- gestible responds inevitably to the opinion of the majority, and to the ruling of fashion which is accepted by the group in which he moves. He may be led thus to become a sup- porter of the Established Church, and a rep- 36 Authority and Suggestibility resentative of political and social decorum. This is perhaps his natural home, for he is conscious of the support of a large body of opinion among his fellow-countrymen. But people whose lot is cast among minorities and heresies may be equally influenced by sug- gestion to embrace these opinions. They re- spond to the dominant authority in their im- mediate surroundings, and become free-think- ers and revolutionaries from sheer orthodoxy. When they come in contact with a wider circle their views may change, and they may find what seems to them an irresistible inner con- viction leading them to the stronghold of a more general orthodoxy. Behind the variation of their opinions lies the constant psycholog- ical factor of suggestibility. The reverse process is seen in the individual whose reac- tion to authority has taken the form of the rebel tendency. He carries with him an in- ward resistance to all authority as such; he must always be " agin' the Government," no matter what measure is under discussion. Minorities and lost causes are his special de- partment. In all circumstances of life his ear is unnaturally quick to catch the Tyrant-Rebel motif. He plays many parts; and perhaps his greatest is that of Prometheus. Defiance on behalf of the whole human race in the face of Z7 The New Psychology and the Teacher divine oppression is heresy on the grand scale. It is clear enough that both these tendencies contain elements that are essential to the com- munity. Kvcn in their cruder forms they may be useful instruments; and they may be trans- formed into motives of direct service. Our immediate concern, however, is to point to their development as a product of the unwise use of authority, and to show how they inval- idate judgment. The person who has been diverted from the normal path as regards his attitude to authority is likely to fall short of the full attainment of self-realization and so- cial efficiency. His judgments and his actions cannot be accepted at their surface value: too much allowance has to be made for emotional bias. Suggestion may be used to enforce very admirable opinions; but the person who has acquired them by this process holds them in a precarious and unsatisfactory way. Judg- ments that are made in virtue of the heresy tendency are equally the product of a second- rate mental mechanism. It is probable that no one can read an ac- count of the two types without feeling a slight bias towards one or the other: a faint suspi- cion that the writer has been a little hard on one type, or has let one down rather lightly; a passing reflection that at least it is better that 38 Authority and Suggestibility a child should be over-sensitive to national tradition than that he should be indifferent or hostile towards it; or perhaps a slight emo- tional reaction to the idea of Prometheus. In so far as this is true, our own judgment is likely to be at fault. We have been considering the effect upon the child of his experience of authority. It leads to the consideration of unconscious motives in adult life, and we find ourselves asking, not only what opinions a person holds, but also why he holds them. The same method must be applied in considering education from the point of view of the teacher. What meth- ods do we believe in; and why do we believe in them? In so far as wc are biased towards heresy, we shall always be attracted by the new method, especially when it is most strongly opposed to the old (unless we are working under an authority so progressive that it becomes necessary to develop a heresy of reaction). It would appear a very simple matter to detect this or the opposite tendency; but it is to be remembered that what appears from without as bias, prejudice and bigotry, appears from within as rational and well- founded conviction. If it is a simple matter of good will and intention, how shall one ac- count for the failures of education : the chil- 39 The New Psychology and the Teacher dren who grow up with a permanent inability for an unbiased attitude towards authority? The keepers of the gate of authority need the clearest insight into their own motives if they are to discharge their duty fairly. The teach- er's own experience of authority may be the source of his strongest bias; but there are many others. The snare of patronage is al- ways a danger to the grown-up. We enjoy being in a position to patronize the young, and in so doing believe that we are adopting the true parental attitude towards them. That this is the attitude of many parents is only too obvious; but it is the negation of the true parental outlook, because it refuses the child the essential condition of growth, namely freedom. The snare of jealousy is no less real a danger — that jealousy of the old towards the young which is seen in every gregarious spe- cies. The old wolf has enjoyed the mastery of the pack, but when he begins to feel his teeth getting loose he realizes that his days of mastery, and therefore of life, are num- bered; and he develops an inordinate desire to crush the rival whom he has hitherto regarded merely as a junior. Such an idea is so far out of keeping with our conception of our- selves as educators that it may seem a remote and unreal danger: that is to say^ it is more 40 Authority and Suggestibility likely to be an unconscious than a conscious motive. As such, it may exert an unsuspected influence on conduct. There is another tendency which leads the teacher to the wrong use of authority: and that is the instinct of the potter to mould the clay according to his heart's desire; to be con- cerned primarily with the result, and to ignore the process whereby it is achieved. The use of suggestion in medicine throws some light at this point upon its use in education. The clinical psychologist can often achieve star- tling results by suggestive therapeutics; and in a certain amount of perfectly ethical medical work this means is rightly employed. There are nervous conditions in children and in old people for which this is the most suitable form of treatment. There are cases — certain drug addictions, for example — in which it is of great value in breaking the force of physical and mental habit, as a preliminary to cure. But the power to achieve results is not in itself justification for the choice of this method. It is one that makes use of an infantile com- ponent in the patient's mental make-up, and therefore tends to emphasize a characteristic which ought no longer to be exerting an active influence upon his adult life. In like manner, the educator may obtain great results by mak- 41 The New Psychology and the Teacher ing use of the child's suggestibility. The be- haviour, conduct and outward bearing of the child may be extraordinarily altered and dig- nified by the use of authority. Up to a certain point this is necessary and desirable; but if, as a result, the child is becoming permanently suggestible, or if the teacher is sowing the seeds of heresy and rebellion, then he is paying too high a price for the apparent improve- ment in behaviour, and he needs to resist the temptation to work for rapid results, just as the doctor needs to be on his guard against trading on the suggestibility of the patient to produce a rapid cure. And, finally, as he grows older, the teacher's exercise of authority may become marked by that complacent rigidity which is of the es- sence of reaction. The school master of this type will cheerfully crush and mangle the character of a dull boy in forcing him through a public school entrance or responsions, be- cause he knows nothing of education but Eton and Balliol, and because he is too blind to see that in the unequal contest self-realization is being made impossible. It will be said that there is no need of a new psychology to discover that there are mis- guided teachers who fall into all these obvious perils in the use of authority, and the abuse 42 Authority and Suggestibility of the child's suggestibility. This is true; but the reason why it is considered relevant to enumerate them here is that the new psychol- ogy has cast a fresh, and rather a lurid, light on the results of these mistakes. The clinical psychologist is confronted with the victim of educational failure, and learns the story of thwarted development and misdirected growth which lies behind his disability. The study of these cases need not blind him to the vast number of children who have passed safely along the road towards self-realization; but it is does point to the existence of a consid- erable body of men and women who have been unnecessarily hindered in their development. And it also suggests that the barriers in their path have not as a rule been erected by ex- ceptionally malevolent or discreditable edu- cationalists : quite the contrary. It is believed, therefore, that an acquaintance with the methods and the findings of analytical psy- chology will help the teacher both to under- stand the m.ental processes of the child, and to avoid some of those dangers of unconscious bias and prejudice in himself that are some- times at work in contradiction to his conscious purpose. 43 CHAPTER III REALITY AND PHANTASY The Nature of Phantasy. Compensatory Phantasy: Normal. Abnormal. Relation between the two. The child and the adult. Inspiratory Phantasy: The attempt to transcend present knowledge and experience. The pragmatic tests: relation to reality — progressive or regressive. Creative Phantasy: Practical and artistic. The test of social value. Social Phantasy: Its apparent "objectivity." Its relation to reality. "Developing the Child's Imagination": Protest against the shibboleth. Fairy tales, good and bad. The mythology of the unconscious. Phantasy or Reality: Peter Pan. REALITY AND PHANTASY ^TT^HE last chapter was concerned with the -■■ struggle of the developing child in rela- tion to the authority-independence principle. We pass from that to consider the phantasy- reality principle, which involves a struggle of comparable importance. Phantasy, like sug- gestibility, is a characteristic of childhood: both tendencies have their racial value; both must be to a great extent discarded before the individual can be said to have reached matur- ity; both are primary factors in educability, , and both are capable of abuse by educators^i Phantasy is like an air-cushion: there is nothing in it, but it eases the joints wonder- fully. It is the magic that tempers the winds of reality to the shorn lamb. It smooths the path of the child's adjustment to reality; and when that reality offers too menacing an as- pect, it provides a way of escape. It may be stimulated from within, and find expression in day-dreams, castles in the air, and in all forms of imagining and pretending; or it may be stimulated from without by fairy-tales, legends, fables, myths and allegories. All 47 The New Psychology and the Teacher these are of the stuff of phantasy. What part should they play in the life of the child? And how far must they be discarded by the adult? In order to answer these questions, it is neces- sary to distinguish various forms of phantasy. The first, and by far the most common, is the compensatory phantasy. In the child, it is, in moderation, a perfectly normal response to the harshness, rigidity or monotony of real life. The weak little boy has day-dreams in which he performs incredible feats of strength and valour. The little girl, who has been told that she is ugly, pictures herself as a princess of transcendent beauty. Sorhetimes the phan- tasy takes the form of an elaborate story or mental picture; sometimes it is merely a pass- ing wish. The latter form is faithfully illus- trated in Miss Fyleman's verses: I wish I liked rice pudding; I wish I were a twin ; I wish some day a real live fairy Would just come walking in. I wish when I'm at table My feet would touch the floor; I wish our pipes would burst next winter, Just like they did next door. I wish that I could whistle Real proper grown-up tunes; 48 Reality and Phantasy I wish they'd let me sweep the chimnejrs On rainy afternoons. I've got such heaps of wishes, I've only said a few: I wish that I could wake some morning And find they'd all come true! These lines, written with astonishing insight into the child's mind, show how harmless, nat- ural and disarming is the normal phantasy of childhood, and how obvious is the compen- satory mechanism at work. But, while the phantasy tendency is perfectly normal in the child, it is not so in the adult. For him it is a regression ; and he should no longer maintain the hal)it of obtaining satisfaction by picturing himself, his circumstances, or his destiny, in a way that bears no relation to reality. It is, therefore, part of the normal process of devel- opment that the phantasy tendency should gradually diminish in exactly the same way as the tendency to suggestibility should dimin- ish. The failure of this process may be seen in an example taken from the abnormal. The phantasy takes the form of a letter, written by a boy of fourteen — the only child of a widow, who was also a Christian Scientist. His mother believed him to be the most won- derful boy in the world, and taught him to 49 The New Psychology and the Teacher share her belief. She kept him at home until he was fourteen. At that age he was sent to a boarding-school, and to his surprise found himself in the bottom class, the bottom game, and in every way in a position of acute in- feriority. The sympathy that he might have gained in these circumstances was continually being alienated by his own reaction to them: a smile of bland and imperturbable superior- ity. He was unable to adjust himself to the hard and humbling realities of school life. When he had been at school some months the following letter was found written by him : "Dear Sir or Madam, — "I am a member of School. I have a friend here who has a great belief in a strange yet wonderful theory, which he believes has been told him by the great Author and Giver of all things, namely God. "The theory which I am going to set forth before you in the following pages (as he told it to me in the first person I will write it so) is open for your free personal criticisms, which should kindly be addressed to me at the above address. "I feel that I ought to make mention of the fact that my friend has never told anybody in the world of the theory before, and has been expecting it to happen to him each day for the last six years or so, so that nothing can remove it; there it is set out as he told it to me. "I have been expecting for many years to become the most wonderful man upon this earth — in fact, you can hardly say upon this earth, exactly, as I shall be immortal. 50 Reality and Phantasy "I shall have magic lifts, which will run between heaven and earth. Heaven will be my native land, and I shall be sort of let into Heaven by the back door, so to speak. That is to say that I expect I shall not be like an ordinary human being, but if God will give me all these things, I will pay Him back by doing the work set forth by my Father to my utmost capability. To continue, my work will mainly consist in schoolmaster- ing and as a doctor. "I shall have an absolutely new and perfect immortal body, which can be suited to either climates. It will also be controlled by electricity throughout, controlled by switches fastened in my body, enabling me to have (i) strength to give the most collosal kick known; (2) to make myself invisible; (3) to fly through the air. "I shall know all that is known, or ever will be known, including all the languages of the world. "I shall have a brother, who will be born artd bred in Heaven, so to speak. "I shall also have an extremely wonderful motor-car, which will be able to speak, but very shy. "I shall have as much money as I want, my allowance being £1 per day, or £6 105. per week. "I can imagine myself in this other life of which I have told you about. Of course, no human being will be allowed to enter Heaven during his lifetime, except to go into the Healing-Room. The fare, which go to the Heaven Lift Company (the pov/er station of which will be in the Upper World), will be sd. I can also imagine myself doing many things in this other life, for instance, counting the money at the end of the day in the lift, and taking it to the bank. "I presume that I shall wake up in Heaven one morning in a sort of motor-car bed, in the sunshine of 51 The New Psychology and the Teacher this new world, and can imagine running about the town in this car." This document obviously exceeds the limits of normal phantasy, but it illustrates exactly the same compensatory tendency in an exag- gerated form. The boy identifies himself with a friend, who is in the confidence of the Al- mighty, and therefore in a position of supreme privilege and superiority. He is the most wonderful man upon earth: here is compensa- tion for being the least-regarded boy in the whole school. He was lazy; and the need for exertion, physical or mental, was another of the hard realities of life which he was unable to face. Therefore his phantasy is full of magical solutions. There is the lift — a familiar dream-symbol of effortless achievement. A woman of thirty- two, who had been brought up by two mis- guided and adoring parents, and had been un- able to develop self-reliance and individuality, once had a dream that she was staying in an hotel; that she walked upstairs to her parents' room, and that they were angry with her for not having asked for the lift. It was true: their policy had always been to save her effort. Again, electricity plays an important part in the phantasy. To every modern child who 52 Reality and Phantasy is familiar with electric light and power the electric switch is the natural symbol for the greatest result with the least exertion. By merely turning on the switch this boy was to be enabled to give the most colossal kick known; to become invisible, and to fly through the air. It needs but little imagination to call up the scenes to which these powers are com- pensatory: the times when he had been kicked by other boys, or chased round the playground, with good reason for wishing to become in- visible. Flying through the. air is a common and significant symbol of phantasy itself: the escape from the terra firma of reality. Com- pensation for stupidity at lessons is found in the phantasy of knowing all that is known or ever will be known. The boy longed to escape from his schoolfellows, but none the less, he was lonely; and his longing for fellowship finds expression in the idea of a "brother in Heaven" — the ideal companion who would make no exacting demands upon him. The motor-car symbolizes progress without effort; and the conception of the motor-car bed raises the symbol to a higher power of ease. The phantasy can be related at every point to the boy's life, but at every point it is a with- drawal and a retreat from reality. It repre- sents the phantasy tendency, no longer in its 53 The New Psychology and the Teacher normal function of easing the child's adjust- ment to reality, but in an acutely morbid form. And yet it is not so far removed from mental processes which are accepted as normal. Its main idea of effortless salvation, the indi- vidual's demand for preferential treatment, is not an uncommon thought, though it seldom expresses itself so ingenuously as in the aspira- tion to be " let into Heaven by the back door, so to speak." The choice of the occupations of the school master and the doctor is clearly determined by the idea that these are the two most patronizing professions: a sobering thought both for the readers of this book and for its writer. Again, it is impossible not to relate to the situation the fact of the boy's upbringing as a Christian Scientist; for Chris- tian Science is to a large extent based on a phantasy of health, which is a retreat from reality. The sufferer refuses to accept the fact that he has toothache, and describes it as a "false claim," thereby making use of this same principle of attempting to twist reality into a congenial form, rather than adapt one- self to its uncongenial elements. During the war there were many people who refused to accept the circumstantial evi- dence of the death of a son or husband. A widow, wearing deep mourning, admitted to 54 Reality and Phantasy the writer that she was convinced that her hus- band was not dead, despite the fact that he had been missing for two years, and that after nine months he had been — in the official language — "presumed dead." Her "conviction" was clearly a compensatory phantasy, protecting her from the conscious realization of her loss. It might appear that in such circumstances the adult, no less than the child, is entitled to protection from the keen winds of reality, and that we should accept as a merciful dispensa- tion the mental mechanism which makes pos- sible a temporary escape from the intolerable fact. But this view becomes impossible when the effect of compensatory phantasy in the life of the adult is more closely examined. In so far as it is successfully indulged in, it means loss of contact with the reality of outward experience : and that way neurosis lies. And it destroys the unity of the inner life by setting Up a contradiction between the conscious and the unconscious, for while the individual be- lieves in his phantasy, he is repressing his own apprehension of the obvious reality. At this price the consolations of phantasy are too dearly bought. The study of these considera- tions points to the view which has already been stated — that the function of compensatory phantasy is genetic : it has a special part to 55 The New Psychology and the Teacher play in childhood, and it should diminish, almost to the point of disappearance, in the progress to maturity. Although the factor of compensation plays so prominent a part in the phantasies both of the child and of the adult, it is not always the chief factor. One motive of phantasy is the attempt to transcend the limits of present knowledge or experience. Unsatisfied curi- osity is responsible for much phantasy-weav- ing. A child who travelled between Australia and England several times kept asking her parents what life was like at the bottom of the sea. As they never gave her a satisfactory answer she developed the most elaborate phan- tasies. A small boy was sure that the Holy Ghost was a huge gasometer. All children will weave sexual phantasies, so long as they are kept ignorant or deceived on these sub- jects. Mental activity of this type is the raw material of the speculative tendency, where it seeks to push knowledge to its farthest limits. Many of the discoveries and inventions of sci- 1 ence seem to have gained their first footing in' the minds of men in the form of phantasies, and to have held it precariously until practical reason had caught up imagination, and said that truth was stranger than fiction, and that Icarus could fly in broad daylight without S6 Reality and Phantasy having his wings melted. Many of the great myths of the world are an attempt to satisfy the longing for knowledge on things that are beyond present possible experience — the be- ginning and the end of all things, or the origin of evil. And there are ethical and social ideals, which can be seen to be true to the principles of human development, and yet appear so far remote from present experience that, until they can be embodied and expressed, they re- main almost in the realm of phantasy. Adult life is the antithesis of the nursery in many respects, but it resembles it in this: that it is still a narrow territory of familiar things on the edge of a great expanse of unknown coun- try. The phantasy tendency, therefore, in so far as it is the impulse of discovery and as- piration, is part of the equipment of the grown-up no less than of the child. Pro- gressive phantasy is an essential pre-occupa- tion with those who are seeking to "poise the world upon a distant centre." It is easy to generalize upon the idea that dreaming and doing are not necessarily op- posed; but it is necessary also to have some standard of the right and wrong exercise of phantasy. No doubt this raises the metaphys- ical problem: "What is Reality? " but, pend- ing the solution of this problem, one may sug- 57 The New Psychology and the Teacher gest certain comparatively simple pragmatic tests. The value of the phantasy tendency de- pends, first, on the closeness of its relation to actual life. For example, a youth who is on active service may have his mind full of a V.C. phantasy; and this may have a very stim- ulating effect on his immediate conduct. But the same phantasy, obsessing the mind of his small brother at school, may hinder, rather than help, him in his efforts to master the binomial problem for the purposes of Wool- wich entrance. Another test is to be found in the distinc- tion between progressive and regressive phan- tasy. The child's dreams and imaginings may seem absurdly remote from his present exist- ence, and yet have a bearing upon his future. The adult's phantasies are likely to be directed to the past. Sometimes it is his own actual past that he dwells upon and idealizes, until "it would seem that the recollection of his youth is more precious to him than any present joys." ^ Sometimes it is the return in imagina- tion to a condition which should be psycho- logically past, since it belongs to an earlier phase of development. "It is ever so in life, when we draw back before too great an ob- ^ Analytical Psychology, by Dr. C. G. Jung, BailHere, Tindall & Cox, 191 7. p. 164. ' 58 Reality and Phantasy stacle — the menace of some severe disappoint- ment, or the risk of some far-reaching decision —the energy stored up for the solution of the task flows back impotent; the by-streams once relinquished as inadequate are again filled up."^ The conception of regression is of im- mense importance in the understanding and treatment of mental and nervous disorders; and the retreat into phantasy is one of its char- acteristic phenomena. There is a third aspect of phantasy: that which includes all invention, all art, and every work of the creative imagination. This is un- questionably to be encouraged in the child. It is good that he should draw, plan, devise, and make anything and everything, and that he should explore the ways of self-expression. In the adolescent and the adult a more rigid standard needs to be applied. There are many products of phantasy which their au- thors would fain justify as "creative," which are, in reality, mainly compensatory: stories, for example, in which the hero seeks satisfac- tion for his own disappointments by identify- ing himself with the achievements of the hero. And there is much "self-expression" which is of no conceivable value to the community. The schoolboy who writes sonnets in pref- ^ Ibid., p. 156. 59 The New Psychology and the Teacher erence to doing his trigonometry may, of course, be a potential Rupert Brooke: but he may be simply a young slacker. Education in the past has not been free from the reproach of rigidity and inability to apply exceptional methods to exceptional individuals; and we are therefore likely to be influenced to-day by a bias in the opposite direction. We are inclined to believe in self-expression as a thing that is necessarily valuable, and to be encour- aged without discrimination. This view is obviously incomplete without the reservation that there are times, and perhaps many times, when the young person — much more the ado- lescent than the child — must, for the good of society and of his own soul, leave self-expres- sion aside for the moment, and learn self-dis- cipline. The discussion of the social value of creative phantasy raises many issues which lie beyond the realm of psychology, and there- fore beyond the scope of this book. Hitherto we have been chiefly considering the phantasy tendency in the individual: the same mental mechanism can be seen at work in the community. Reference has already been made to the element of phantasy in Christian Science: the refusal to admit the reality of pain. We may attach a high value to this belief; but it is none the less important 60 Reality and Phantasy to recognize the nature of the psychological process involved. Social phantasy comes to the normal individual with a far greater au- thority than is attached to his own private phantasies. He is inclined to believe that reality is something "objective"; and that the test of a thing's objectivity is that other people should experience it too. He makes due al- lowance for his own capacity for illusion; but when large numbers of other people accept a theory it becomes something outside himself, and carries the credential of "objectivity." It may be remembered that there was once a con- troversy among the evening newspapers as to which had the largest circulation. It was car- ried on with great intensity and warmth : chal- lenges were flung down; claims were made; statistics were demanded. The Press is al- ways a good field for observing the play of primitive instincts; and the emotional re- sponse to this stimulus was no doubt related to the instincts of self-preservation. But the particular importance of the question of cir- culation was not merely one of numbers but of authority. Social phantasy — rumour — is part of the legitimate stock-in-trade of the evening newspapers (seeing that it can always be contradicted in the morning) ; and the more people there are reading the rumour the more 6i The New Psychology and the Teacher conviction it carries to each one. A special sanctity is attached to anything that is read by more than a million people on one day. If the social phantasy is to commend itself to belief, it has to pass another of the tests of reality which we commonly employ: it has to appear in some sort of harmony with the rest of experience. All rumour is intimately related to experience; but it is the kind of relation which existed between the extrava- gant phantasy of the schoolboy and the reali- ties of his life at school. If we were to apply the test rigidly and impartially, there would be many rumours that could never pass through the gate. As it is, they fly over it. Rumour springs from a need that confounds judgment: "defeating the conscious aim to express objective truth by the unconscious aim to express subjective emotion." ^ We can see this mechanism at work in any social phan- tasy. It is clearly illustrated in the most striking example of our own times — the Rus- sian rumour of September, 1914. It stands out as evidence of the tragic and pathetic need that was felt in those days. We were up against a reality more terrible and menacing than any we had known, and we took refuge 1 M. K. Bradby: The Logic of the Unconscious Mind, Oxford Medical Publications, p. 60. 62 Reality and Phantasy from it in a great phantasy of deliverance, for which there was not a single scrap of veri- fiable evidence. Some of the most vivid and intense forms of social phantasy are of the compensatory type; butexamples of the other types will also occur to the reader. The idea of the League of Nations has long been in the world as an in- spiratory phantasy. To-day, though it has a local habitation and a Covenant, its friends as well as its enemies protest that *'it is a mere ghost that walks the earth.'* Whether or no one believes in such ghosts, and in the power of things that are not to bring to naught things that are, must depend upon one's view of the nature of reality. This discussion of phantasy must be related to the general view of the educationalist on the advisability of "developing the child's imagination." There is some difference of opinion on this point. Dr. Montessori has assumed a somewhat uncompromising attitude with regard to the fairy tale, and its place in education; and her attitude has been sub- jected to a good deal of criticism. There is probably an element of truth in the objection that Dr. Montessori comes from a Latin race, and does not fully appreciate the value of folk-lore to a Saxon, Teutonic or Scandina- 63 The New Psychology and the Teacher vian people. It is certainly true that as Chris- tianity dominated the Latin races first, it sup- pressed to a great extent the evolution of folk- lore in its original form; so that these races are much poorer in legend and myth than the more Northern races. The racial phantasy was largely absorbed in religious allegory and hagiology. It may also be said that the North- ern races have, on the whole, less facility for self-expression; and, therefore, more emphasis is needed in their education on all that tends to encourage it. But, with these reservations, one must accept the large measure of truth in Dr. Montessori's position. Her objection is, no doubt, based partly on the worthlessness, fatuity or harmfulness of many of the fairy stories in currency. There is need for a pro- test against the mere shibboleth of "develop- ing the child's imagination." The phantasy tendency is inherent in every child; but its development is not necessarily valuable. The policy of "developing the imagination" may produce an Edison or a hypochondriac. Every form of stimulus to the imagination, whether it be the kinema, or phantasy, or fairy tales, needs to be judged on its own merits. The value or the harm of it entirely depends on the kind of picture the child sees, and the kind of story he hears or makes up- for himself. -64 Reality and Phantasy No one can doubt that fairy tales, myths and allegories serve the purpose of objectifying the abstract, so as to bring it within the grasp of the child : he must pass thus from the seen to the unseen, from the known to the unknown. They are invaluable forms of expression; but what is it that they express? And how much of this meaning does the child understand? The story of Little Red Riding-hood is a very interesting one from the point of view of racial psychology. It appears in the folk-lore of every country from Persia to Norway, and it contains a deep psychological truth. Its theme is the age-long story of the conflict between the aspiring child and the doomed adult; between confident vision and consum- ing jealousy. All that the old grandmother stood for of love and devotion has been con- sumed in the bitterness of becoming a "back number." Then there is a magical interven- tion : the man appears and saves the girl. Most of us have known the girl confronted with this danger, and we have seen that sometimes the man does appear and save her, and that some- times he does not, and she is destroyed by the fierceness of bitter and exacting age. It is a story full of meaning; but is it a meaning that we wish the child to appropriate, consciously or unconsciously? Do we want the child to 6s The New Psychology and the Teacher believe that willing devotion to duty is likely to lead into such dire danger? Do we want to add a wolf to the fear-concepts of children who have quite enough to supply that element when they deal with dogs and motor-buses? Do we want them to believe in the certainty of magical and effortless salvation? And if the real meaning of the story is missed, both by the teacher and the child, is there any value in it, as a mere stimulus to imagination? The same indiscriminate belief in the value of a story leads many people to teach children parables and incidents from the Bible without adequate understanding of their meaning. The story of Legion and the destruction of the Gadarene swine has been related to children by parents and teachers who were unable to show in it any sort of message, or even to bring it into line with the most ordinary code of ethics. The legend of St. Christopher is an example of a story that is entirely valuable. There is nothing ugly in it. The magic part is no effortless salvation, but a truth that is truer than any — a truth that the child may not be ready to apprehend, but that he will realize in after years, when, after self-forgetful devo- tion to the service of his fellow-men, he finds the load becoming intolerably heavy; and the 66 Reality and Phantasy wakens to the fact that that load is the Christ and none other. Let us give the children Arthurian legends, stories of Drake and Raleigh, Livingstone and Stanley, Shackleton and Scott — stories that are full of hard-earned achievement, the glory of service, and the triumph over circumstances. And let us taboo all fairy tales dealing with the conflict between old and young; all that represent life and progress as unduly exacting or menacing; all that end up with effortless and magical solutions, and all that deal with punishment and vengeance. So much may be said of the stimulation of phantasy from without. It should be remem- bered, however, that although we may guard all the outward gates of the child's mind, and submit all incoming phantasy-material to a careful inspection, there is one line of com- munication which defies our vigilance; for it leads from the depths of the unconscious. The myths and symbols that belong to the racial unconscious emerge thence in dreams and day-dreams. Dr. Maurice Nicoll has pointed out the imp9ssibility of protecting the child's mind from all images of terror and nightmare: "The goblins of the night spring out of the sleeping senses themselves as ap- paritions older than the waking mind, as 67 The New Psychology and the Teacher haunters older than the haunted. They lie in the psyche itself. They are, as Lamb has called them, transcripts, types, whose arche- types are in us, and eternal." ^ ^ Dream Psychology, by Maurice NicoU. Oxford Medical Publications, 191 7. p. 4. This conception, which is based on Jung's theory of the collective unconscious, explains the common basis of symbolism which can be traced in dreams, and cannot be traced to any common source in consciousness. It also explains the powerful appeal which fairy stories make to the mind — an appeal which obviously is inde- pendent of the relation of the story to reason or experience. In the light of this theory it is possible to recognize in the myth-making tendency of the child traces of a certain stage in the historical process of the psychological evolu- tron of the race. In a recent account of Jung's teaching the process of man's adaptation to the two worlds of "subjective" and "objective" reality has been traced through three main stages. {Vide "Some Analytical In- terpretations," by Maurice Nicoll, Journal of Neurology and Psychopathology, May, 192 1, Vol. ii. No. 5, p. 26 f., from which the quotations that follow are taken.) In the first and most primitive stage they are not distin- guished ; the content of the collective unconscious is pro- jected into the object, which becomes thereby endowed with mysterious significance. "What is really subjective is not detached from what is objective. As long as this state persists there is participation mystique with the ob- ject. The object becomes endowed with demoniacal or God-like qualities, and is feared or worshipped accord- ingly. The whole world trembles with magic." This 68 Reality and Phantasy One of the greatest truths on the subject of phantasy is conveyed in the phantasy of Peter Pan. How far is it apprehended by the adults who take children to that play? It is that every single child has to go through the stage is easily recognizable in the development of the child : and indeed most people can remember the time when there was still for them participation mystique with some feared or cherished object. In the next stage of psycho- logical evolution, the collective unconscious begins to be detached from the objects which it once animated, and a partially distinct world of myth and symbol comes into being. "We must understand mythology historically, as a means whereby man set apart the content of the col- lective unconscious, and came into a truer relationship to the real object. By this means he first divided the world of psychological realities from the world of the objective realities." We are not concerned here to follow the process to the further stage of still more thorough differentiation, and more adequate adjustment both to the collective unconscious and to the external world. It is the second stage that provides the parallel to the period in childhood in which myths and fairy tales count for most. We need to include in our conception of the function of phantasy this view of it as an attempt to distinguish the two worlds which we describe unsatis- factorily, but recognizably, as "subjective" and "ob- jective." It is a temporary adjustment, and on its nega- tive side, as an escape from reality, it has to be dis- carded. On the positive side, it represents the dawning apprehension of a world of psychological reality, to which the individual has to learn to make a more and adequate adjustment. 69 The New Psychology and the Teacher temptation of Peter Pan : that the determina- tion to retreat from reality and escape into phantasy and to live in a world of dreams is always near the child in adolescence; and that if he goes too far, he is unable to get back. This was the fate of Peter Pan, and of the boy who wrote the letter quoted at the beginning of this chapter. Peter Pan could not get back, even when he had his final chance: the girl, offering herself to him. If reality is made too harsh and uncom- promising, too difficult and menacing for the child, one of two things must happen : either he will escape into phantasy, as Peter Pan did ; or he will become a materialist to whom ideal- ism makes no appeal. The two reactions are strictly analogous to the two reactions to au- thority discussed in the previous chapter. If authority is made too hard, the child becomes ultra-suggestible, or a rebel; if reality is made too hard, then the child yields to it, in a way that is comparable to the action of the ultra- suggestible; or else he resists it, and becomes the materialist, comparable to the rebel. 70 CHAPTER IV EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT THE BOY The Sociological Standpoint: Psychology must be harmonized with it. The freedom of the individual and its limita- tions. The Evolutionary Standpoint: Educating the child for parenthood. The Goal of Development: The three adjustments. Contrasts in the process of development. The Rotation of Phases in the Boy: Development Arrested by the Mother: Dreams and examples. Development Arrested by the Father: Dreams and examples. Parsifal Myth, as Illustrating Emotional Devel- opment. EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE BOY TN discussing the psychology of the child's -■■ development, it is essential to adopt a sociological standpoint. The new psychology has come in with a great protest against the crushing of individuality, the repression of childish and adolescent impulse, which was so characteristic of the Victorian age. In so doing, it has been inclined to swing too far in the opposite direction. There are schools of psycho-analysis to-day which appear to make the development of the individual the be-all and end-all of their work. But it is plain that any new addition to knowledge must correlate itself with other departments of human understanding and endeavour; and if the new psychology is to stand alone, if it can- not be related to modern sociology and to mod- ern religious views, it has evaded an impor- tant test of value, and it may fail to be of real service. It is therefore not possible to discuss the emotional development of the child and of the adolescent from the point of view 73 The New Psychology and the Teacher of the child and the adolescent alone. A psy- cho-analyst who accepted the extreme indi- vidualist view, when confronted with the case of a confirmed pickpocket, was reduced to maintaining that the man had got to realize himself as a pickpocket, and that it was the fault of society that he had come to that point. He was prepared to disregard the general in- terests of society. The person who hustles on to a 'bus, and meets the descending stream of passengers halfway down the steps, asserts his independence of the conductor's order at the expense of the liberty of his fellow-crea- tures, and his expression of individuality is devoid of any social value. In so far as psy- chology appears to defend an ideal of self- realization which underestimates the claims of the community, in so far does it weaken the effectiveness of its true demand for liberty, by making an exaggerated claim. The student of analytical psychology will often enough find himself called upon to defend the cause of freedom : the freedom of the child to grow up and — it may be — to develop views that are entirely opposed to those of his parents; freedom from emotional domination and the tyranny of unwise afifection; freedom of the individual judgment to find its own standard of values from the mass of collective opinion. 74 Emotional Development: The Boy In all these ways, and many more, he will find himself sincerely and urgently on the side of freedom. But he will not strengthen his posi- tion by using the appeal to liberty indiscrim- inately. There are people who cut their way through many intricate problems on these lines. The case for divorce is quite simple to them, because marriage so often presents "the / tragic spectacle of two people yoked together who cannot develop their own individuality." It does not occur to them that this tragic spec- tacle may perhaps have to be endured and per- petuated, because the individual is of less ac- count than society; and because two people who have perpetrated the huge blunder of getting married to each other must endure the dreary results for the sake of what the mar- riage tie means to society, and for the sake of what parenthood means to the next generation. Therefore, in discussing the development of the child, it will be assumed that freedom im- poses its own limitations, and that the freedom of the individual has to be restrained when it begins to infringe the freedom of other people. It is also necessary to adopt the evolutionary standpoint, accepting it in its simplest and most indisputable form as the conviction that the next generation matters more than the present generation. Its obvious corollary is 75 The New Psychology and the Teacher that in the development of the child we are thinking of him, not only as a possible citizen, but as something more important: a possible parent. We are not only concerned that when he has a vote, he should be able to go to the poll, and vote reasonably in the interests of his own generation ; but that he should vote in a way that is right for the generation beyond. It may be suspected that this is ultimately a mere biological maxim — something that is concerned with "life" (to ^f\v) rather than "the right kind of life" (to ei) ^Yjv) ; but the evolutionary standpoint implies here a value in quality as well as in survival. A man's judgment in matters of citizenship, education and religion is normally at its best when he is considering the interests of his children. We are left with certain indications of the goal of individual development. The child has to grow up, and to make the three princi- pal adjustments which are demanded of the complete human being. He has to make the adjustment to society: to pass from the self- centred isolation of infancy to full com- munion with his fellow-creatures. The human species is gregarious; and if the individual fails to make his adjustment to the herd, his life is incomplete, and his character is not fully developed. Secondly, he has to make the 76 Emotional Development: The Boy adjustment to the potential mate. From the point of view of character-development, it matters relatively little w^hether the boy or girl ultimately marries; but it matters intensely whether he or she is psychologically adjusted to the potential mate and to the conception of parenthood. The third adjustment which has to be made is the adjustment to the Infinite. It is useless for a person to consider himself an adult while he is still pretending to himself and to the world that he does not know whether there is a God, and is indifferent on the subject. He is far from maturity if he does not know himself well enough to realize that he has got to settle in his mind his own view of the Infinite, and to adjust himself to it. Nor is his adjustment adequately made if he carries through life a conception founded primarily on childish experience: the concep- tion of a God who is identified either with the severity or with the indulgence of his parents. In making these three adjustments, the child is involved in a series of complete transitions. He begins life entirely dependent, ego-centric, irresponsible; he should become fully inde- pendent, altruistic, responsible. He has to pass from the completely filial to the com- pletely parental attitude. From being the vic- tim of circumstance and environment, help- 77 The New Psychology and the Teacher less in the face of these two factors, he should end by being independent of both, and the captain of his own soul. Lastly, from being first unconscious, and then more and more conscious of himself as a centre of attraction, he should attain to the completely adult atti- tude which includes the readiness to be ig- nored. These are drastic changes: and we have seen how the two mechanisms of sug- gestibility and phantasy are needed to ease the process of transition. It remains to con- sider the successive phases of growth which can be distinguished in the girl and the boy. The determining factor in these phases is the dominant emotional interest; it will not be the exclusive interest, but psychologically it is the dominant interest that counts. The rotation of these phases in the boy's emotional development is represented on the diagram: which shows also the approximate ages at which they occur. It cannot be too clearly stated that the ages shown are only an average, and that there is a great deal of individual variation. The child begins by being purely ego-centric; but within a short time his in- terest begins to flow out towards his mother. She becomes first the sole, and then the dom- inant emotional factor in his life, and he associ- ates her with ideas of nourishment, comfort, 78 Emotional Development: The Boy consolation, and protection. This relationship to her shows all those characteristics which were enumerated as belonging tothechildish at- titude : it is a relation of complete dependence, irresponsibility, and the rest. At about the I Mother 0-8 HETERO SEXUAL HOMO SEXUAL E Mafe 18 — 8-12 in School fel/Oivi ia-i8 age of seven, eight, or nine, interest begins to be transferred to the father. The dawning of this phase is seen in the familiar phrases of the small boy: "When I am a big man, I'm going to have a big stick like Daddy. . . ." What- ever symbol the child uses, the main idea is 79 The New Psychology and the Teacher the same. This emulation of his father is the very first step that the child takes in passing out of the phase of complete dependence. It is only a step in phantasy so far; but it is very significant, and during these four years or so the relative influences of the father and the mother are intensely important and formative. The boy at this stage should normally be hero- worshipping his father, and should be a good deal formed by his example. After this follows the school age — from twelve to eighteen. Actually, it is only the school age for a limited number of boys. There are some who go to a boarding school at seven and a half, and there is the vast majority whose school career is completely over at fourteen or sixteen. Psychologically, however, it is the ideal school age for all boys; and the development of the normal public school boy can be examined as a typical ex- ample. When a boy first goes to school, the imme- diate reaction of his mind to a strange and rather hostile environment is to look for a father-substitute: some one to whom he can stand in the same relation of emulation and dependence as he stood to his father. He may find it in one of the masters, or in the captain of the fifteen, or in a prefect. ' He may be 80 Emotional Development: The Boy conscious of the protection of an older boy; and he will also think to himself: "When I am as old as Jones Major, I hope I'll be in the Eleven." It is phantasy still, but he has made a tremendous advance. When the hero was his father, the phantasy was perhaps thirty years ahead of him; when it is Jones Major, it is only five or six years ahead. His phan- tasy has come very much nearer to reality. This period of the boy's life falls roughly into three different sections, as he passes through the lower, middle, and upper school. In the lower school the boy is still having a considerable share of protection. He is a fag. His prefect and other prefects have a certain responsibility for him; his master is aware that nothing must happen to boys as small as this; public opinion demands that he shall not be unduly maltreated. He is still in a position of dependence. The middle-school period is the most crit- ical and serious. The age coincides with the chief crisis of his biological development; and he is passing through the most difficult phase of transition to independence. He is no longer under protection. He must learn now to stand on his own feet. At the same time, he has not much scope for asser- tion. He is between the upper and the nether 8i The New Psychology and the Teacher millstone : there is neither the position of hero- worship and dependence, nor of power and responsibility. Life may be very difficult for him at this stage. By the time the boy reaches the upper school age — from sixteen to eighteen — he should be- gin to feel his power; and it is the genius of our public-school system that po\yer is imme- diately associated with responsibility. It may or may not be true that Waterloo was won upon the playing fields of Eton : but it appears indisputable that British success in coloniza- tion and in the guardianship of primitive peoples is the direct result of a training that from the first harnesses power to responsibil- ity. Other nations who have copied the Eng- lish public-school system have almost invari- ably drawn the line at this point. The big boys may have been called prefects or mon- itors : but there would be always a master looking over their shoulders to see that the small boys were not sacrificed to their injustice or cruelty. We have adopted the policy of trusting the big boy; and if we have paid the price of trust in sacrificing the well-being and comfort of a certain number of small boys, we have also found it the essential condition of developing a character that can be trusted with power. 82 Emotional Development: The Boy If this principle is accepted as true and vitally important, it is a sufficient indictment of a social and educational system that cuts the majority of boys adrift from school at the age of fourteen, or even at sixteen. They are bursting w^ith power, and they are set free in a position of minimum responsibility. The hiatus between the time of leaving school and its discipline, and the time of taking up the responsibilities of marriage and of adult life is responsible for the great problem of hooli- ganism, the solution of which is left to various voluntary associations, such as the Boy Scout Movement. It is very little use trying to train boys in civics before they are sixteen; and it is equally little use to attempt it after they are twenty-one, and have married and settled down. It is at the period between these ages that the ideas of responsibility have to be driven home. Somewhere about the age of seventeen or eighteen the boy normally begins to be aware of those biological tendencies which, all through the animal kingdom, are associated with the adornment of the person. If he can- not sing like the nightingale, he can at least wear resplendent socks; and if he cannot strut like the peacock, he can purchase more bril- liantine : and these things he does to commend 83 The New Psychology and the Teacher himself in the eyes of Robinson's sister, who is coming down to see the match. This is per- fectly normal, simple and desirable. (There is another motive for personal adornment which is less wholesome: the autoerotic motive known as Narcissism. This is a definite psy- chological phenomenon: but it is no part of normal development, being in fact a regres- sion.) From this point begins the boy's in- terest in the potential mate; and it should nor- mally lead him on to courtship, love, marriage and parenthood. In reviewing the four phases, it is plain that, as has been already pointed out,