39°

EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY

is  essentially  to  be  ill.  Now,  just  as  the  individual  who
is  physically  ill  goes  finally  to  a  physician  for  an  examination ­
  and  prescription,  so  it  will  probably  be,  in  time,
that  the  worker  who  becomes  dissatisfied  with  his  work
or  has  lost  his  job  will  come  to  the  psychologist  for  an  examination ­
  and  prescription.  The  physician,  by  virtue
of  an  impersonal  and  scientific  technique,  has  become  the
acknowledged  friend  of  every  man.  It  may  be  that  the
psychologist,  by  virtue  of  a  similar  technique,  may  win
a  position  as  enviable.
This  is  looking  somewhat  into  the  future.  But  the
future  of  psychology  is  so  promising  that  ambitious  promoters ­
  have  already  begun  to  capitalize  it.  There  exists
even  now  a  large  body  of  pseudo-psychological  doctrine
and  literature  which  bears  the  same  relation  to  psychology ­
  that  nostrums  bear  to  medicine.  Advertisements
and  articles  extolling  “get  rich  quick  mentally”  schemes
are  as  common  in  periodicals  of  high  repute  to-day  as
nostrums  were  a  generation  ago.  The  chief  signs  by  which
these  quack  psychological  remedies  may  be  recognized  is
that  they  uniformly  promise  a  remedy  which  is  speedy,
infallible,  and  ready  for  instantaneous  application.  The
industrial  world  and  individuals  generally  will  do  well
to  beware  investing  heavily  in  any  project,  masquerading
under  the  name  psychology,  which  claims  any  of  these
characteristics.
While  not  purely  scientific  in  every  detail,  it  will  be
evident  to  the  reader  that  the  entire  trend  of  the  work
described  here  is  toward  the  development  of  an  employment ­
  psychology  based  on  scientific  technique.  The
employment  psychology  which  will  prevail,  and  which
will  increasingly  contribute  to  the  unravelling  of  employment ­
  problems,  is  the  psychology  which  rests  on  contin ­