History of Psychology

Evolutionism.

The establishment of laboratory methods and experimental ideals was one of the great achievements of the nineteenth century. But viewed in retrospect it is seen to be inadequate by itself to cope with the demands of life. It needs to be supplemented by methods and materials which have a different value. These were supplied by the rise of evolutionary biology which dates from Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (1859). Darwin himself made valuable contributions to the literature of psychology, though at the time they were not recognized as be longing in that class. In the Origin of Species he discussed the nature of instincts : in the Descent of Man and Selection in Rela tion to Sex he raised the whole question of the development of mental powers in man and animals, with further extension to the more startling probability that moral qualities might have a natural history: still more definitely psychological was the treatment of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1873). This last work will serve to illustrate the enormous importance of Darwin's work. The first characteristic is the habit and power of observation which makes the theory arise directly out of per sonal experiences : next comes the belief that every event has an explanation, that an expression is equivalent to the operation of definite muscles, and that the use of the muscles is not a matter of chance but intimately related to the life of the individual. The results of Darwin's work were only partly adequate and the laws he formulated do not go much beyond the limits of works on physiognomy. But the ideas were suggestive and could be applied in other directions : they were destined to leaven the whole mass of psychology. British psychology was already beginning to move in new channels. The man who understood the situation was Alexander Bain and his work forms a bridge between the age of Mill and the rise of evolutionary thought. Bain was a Scotchman, trained in Aberdeen, who at different times lectured on moral philosophy, natural philosophy and logic. He took a practical in terest in the problems of education and was well acquainted with the development of physiology at the time when the German School was flourishing under Muller. This factor in Bain's out look mainly accounts for the character of his work. He was pre pared to accept the idea of an innate activity but not to treat it as in any sense a mysterious or spiritual force. In his view it was equivalent to cerebral energy and was a physiological process. Though he was not prepared to deny the reality of the soul, Bain considered that psychology should not go beyond the limits of the natural sciences. His theories are empirical in character and the solidity of his work is largely due to the amount of positive scien tific material which he collected : he was a believer in the value of the inductive methods. Bain's chief publications were The Senses and the Intellect (1855), The Emotions and the Will (1859), The Study of Character (1861), Relation of Mind and Body (1873) and Education as a Science 0880. In scope and impor tance no one equalled Bain during the days of his productive ac tivity, and the works are still consulted and quoted. But it is sig nificant that Bain's system of the human mind, as he called it, was finished in the year which saw the beginning of Darwin's influence. In this respect Bain was unfortunate. His energy and industry achieved great results, but he remained rooted in the Associa tionism which could no longer be stretched to cover the whole life of the mind. The age of Alexander Bain passed away in his own lifetime. He belonged to the age of transition which was rounded off by Lewes and ended by Spencer.

Herbert Spencer (182o-19o3) was the first writer to make general use of the principle of evolution. At first this was not a form of Darwinism. As Darwin owed something to Malthus, so Spencer was indebted to Lamarck and the Positivists. The idea of development in social life came first and then in 1855 appeared the first edition of the Principles of Psychology.

In pure psychology Spencer achieved very little : when he came to the place in the system which should have been filled by that subject, he did no more than adopt the current ideas of the Associationists. But the real service rendered by Spencer was in progressing by gradual steps from the description of organic struc ture, through neurological specialization of function into the ori gins of mental life. In this descriptive work he kept constantly in mind the guiding principle of adaptation, which implies that the inner development is controlled by the necessity of responding to the external environment. The term biology is thus given a con

crete meaning. As the nervous system develops the inner develop ment takes the form of psychic action. Next to general physiology Spencer proposed to put aesthophysiology. In other words there is a development from purely somatic or bodily action (as in reflex motion) to sense-perception and thence by degrees of refinement and complication to the higher mental functions. This plan con tains all the essential elements of a purely objective approach to psychology and is in fact a form of psychobiology. The impor tance of Spencer was due to the way in which he established the idea of objective psychology and stimulated work in comparative psychology. His article on "The Comparative Psychology of Man" (Mind, 1876) may be described as the foundation-stone of that science.

In British psychology the tendency between 185o and 188o was toward emphasis on the relation between body and mind, with considerable attention to the abnormal and pathological states. The books most widely known were such as the Psycho logical Enquiries of Sir Benjamin Brodie (1855-62), Chapters on Mental Physiology by Sir Henry Holland (1858), Mind and Brain by T. Laycock (186o), Body and Mind by H. Maudsley (1871), Principles of Mental Physiology by W. B. Carpenter (1852 and 1874). George Henry Lewes, Professor of Physiology in London University, wrote a series of volumes on Problems of Life and Mind. The third volume, published after his death in 1879, was entitled The Study of Psychology, Its Object, Scope and Method. In this work Lewes defined psychology as "the analysis and classification of the sentient functions and faculties, revealed to observation and induction, completed by the reduction of them to their conditions of existence, biological and sociological." This definition represents the view created by the writers of the pre ceding quarter of a century. It is notable for the fact that it states clearly the necessity of extending the biological treatment to include the activities which are peculiar to man as related to a social environment. This aspect of the subject was soon to have its day.

French School.

While British psychology was passing through its enlightenment, France was beginning to emerge from a period of lethargy. The undisputed leadership in science which France held at the close of the eighteenth century, gradually slipped from its grasp. There was a period of confused and scat tered efforts which seemed to show that France had abandoned the methods of Condillac without finding any new inspiration. The only line of thought which was not broken was the medical which, from Pinel onward, seemed to be peculiarly suited to the French genius. Esquirol, Baillarger (1842) and Brierre de Boismont (1845) kept alive a psychology which was more concerned with abnormal than normal states. A special line of investigation which occasioned a long controversy beginning in 1825 was concluded by Broca in 1861. This was the question of a special centre for speech, which Broca declared to be the third frontal convolution of the left hemisphere. The study of aphasia has developed since Broca's time into a much more complex question involving motor aphasia, word-blindness, word-deafness and agraphia (loss of power to write a word otherwise comprehended). Broca's prob lem was part of the general question of localisation. The pioneer work had been done by Gall and was carried on in a desultory manner until about 187o. Then new methods were employed in experiments on animals and the brain began to be mapped out according to results which showed how the destruction of a par ticular part of the cortex affected muscular action or sense-per ception. The names of Fritzsch, Hitzig, Munk, Goltz, Ferrier, Horsley, Schaefer and many others indicate the activity shown in this branch of research. Though Broca's view has been modified by subsequent research it is historically important. The more general advance of psychology was initiated by Taine's book De ?Intelligence (187o). Taine used his literary gifts to interest the French in the empirical English methods. His book was im portant as an influence in establishing new ideas of method, and in 1888 a professorship of Experimental and Comparative Psy chology was created at the College de France. The first occupant of the chair was Theodule Ribot (1839-1916). In 1873 Ribot published a book on L'Heredite Psychologique which Taine and his party regarded as the beginning of a scientific study of mind.