EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY DEFINED
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philosophically was to solve all the problems of life. The
mathematician and physicist also had their day. Archimedes
could have pried the globe out of its orbit if he had
had the necessary fulcrum. Medicine was a universal
remedy for all maladies of the flesh and spirit long before
it had passed the blood-letting stage. All of these panaceas,
however, survived their initial greatness, and to-day
are contributing their modest bit to the collective progress
of the race.
Psychology, too, when the furor of its debut is over—
if one may speak of it in such frivolous terms—will settle
down into a less dazzling, but certainly more constructive,
existence. It is difficult to predict how soon this will be.
It is safe to predict that many fingers will be burned before
it does happen. However, psychology will assume
its distinct place among the applied sciences. It will also
develop that professional caste and dignity which give
to medicine and all other well-established professions their
standing in the eyes of the world.
But what is psychology? Having made the broad
statement which most people will readily admit, that few
of those who talk so glibly about psychology have an
adequate conception of what it is—we must now answer
the question: What is it?
Psychology may perhaps be more clearly defined if it
is compared with a similar science, for example, the science
of medicine. The general nature of medicine is reasonably
well understood, and there are no great illusions as
to its powers. Nevertheless, medicine has passed through
the same stage of nebulosity through which psychology
is passing to-day. A thousand years ago, medicine was
an art with almost unlimited powers. There was no ill
of flesh or spirit for which the ancient healer did not
