EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY  DEFINED

9

At  death,  this  spirit  left  the  body  at  its  last  breath,  and
departed  into  some  other  region.  This  belief,  in  a  more
or  less  refined  form,  constituted  the  heart  of  psychology
as  far  down  as  the  present  decade.  Within  the  memory
of  most  people  are  the  famous  experiments  conducted  by
many  prominent  physicians,  in  which  bodies  were  weighed
on  the  most  delicate  scales  just  before  and  just  after  death
in  order  to  discover  if  the  departure  of  the  soul  was  accompanied ­
  by  any  falling  off  in  weight.  At  the  present  time,
psychology  is  in  what  we  have  called  the  stage  of  home
remedies.  People  are  believing  all  manner  of  queer  things
and  following  all  kinds  of  strange  advice  because  they  are
labelled  psychology.  Hypnotism  and  the  ability  of  the
psychologist  to  make  people  do  impossible  stunts  are
still  considered  a  psychological  sine  qua  non.  Indeed,
it  is  most  common  for  people  to  ask  whether  it  is  possible
for  a  psychologist  to  read  minds,  and  they  are  usually
disappointed  at  a  negative  answer.  The  writer  once
made  a  deep  impression  on  a  group  of  hard-headed  business ­
  men  to  whom  he  was  being  introduced  as  a  psychologist. ­
  During  the  introduction  he  remarked  to  one  of
the  men:  “You  are  a  Cornell  man,  are  you  not?”  This
happened  to  be  the  case  and  all  the  men  marvelled  at  the
uncanny  insight  of  this  psychologist,  when,  as  a  matter
of  fact,  his  question  was  nothing  more  than  a  lucky  guess.
Instances  of  this  kind,  and  the  frequent  misuses  of  the
word  psychology  which  have  been  pointed  out  before,
are  evidence  of  the  nebulous  idea  which  psychology  suggests ­
  to  the  majority  of  those  who  use  the  word.
However,  within  the  last  fifty  years,  in  secluded  and  little
known  laboratories,  psychology  has  been  developing  very
rapidly  into  a  genuine  science.  The  workings  of  the  mind
have  been  subject  to  a  scrutiny  as  minute  and  thorough