By Joseph Jastrow
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FACT AND FABLE IN PSYCHOLOGY. Largecrown 8vo, gilt top, $2.00.
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FACT AND FABLE
IN
PSYCHOLOGY
BY JOSEPH JASTROW
PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY JOSEPH JASTROW
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TO MY HELPMATE
PREFACE
A group of problems that appears conspicuously inthe present volume, and in so far contributes to thefitness of its title, has obtained a considerable intereston the part of the public at large. Such interest seemsprone to take its clue from the activity of those whoherald startling revelations on the basis of unusualpsychic experiences, and who give promise of disclosingother worlds than the one with which common sense andcommon sensation acquaint us, rather than from thecautious and consistent results of serious and professionalstudents in study or in laboratory. The fascinationof the unusual over the popular mind is familiarand intelligible, and seems in no direction more pronouncedthan in matters psychological. So long asthis interest is properly subordinated to a comprehensiveand illuminating general view of the phenomenain question, it is not likely to be harmful and mayprove to be helpful. But when the conception of thenature of our mental endowment and the interest in theunderstanding thereof are derived from the unusual,the abnormal, and the obscure, instead of from the normal,law-abiding observations systematized and illuminatedby long and successful research, there is dangerthat the interest will become unwholesome and theconception misleading. It is quite natural that the[vi]plain man should be interested in the experiences ofthe world of mind which form an intrinsic part of hiscommon humanity; and it is equally natural that heshould find attraction in less commonplace and seeminglyanomalous mental phenomena. If thunderstormswere as rare as total eclipses of the sun, it is likelythat they would attract equal attention, be looked uponas terrifying and portentous by superstitious humanity,and be invested by tradition with mysterious significance,under the influence of the interest in theunusual. The existence of this interest is itself a distinctivetrait meriting a psychological interpretation,and one not likely to be overlooked. Its direction andregulation become the care of the several departmentsof science that deal with the respective subject-mattersinvolved. And yet in a special way, as expressions of thepopular esprit, such interests claim the psychologist'sattention as they do not claim the attention of representativesof other sciences. It may happen that theastronomer finds an interest in noting popular conceptionsin regard to comets and life on other planetsand beliefs about meteors and eclipses, but such interestforms no essential part of his occupation. Heknows very well that the intelligent layman who wishesto be informed on astronomical matters will turn with