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EMPLOYMENT  PSYCHOLOGY

ualistic  and  haphazard  method  of  ascertaining  points  of
view  a  more  reliable  and  scientific  method.
Finally,  it  may  be  protested  that  the  methods  here
described  are  altogether  too  disinterested  and  mechanical.
It  may  be  claimed  that  they  work  upon  an  individual  as
a  machine  works  upon  raw  material,  without  sympathy
and  without  the  human  touch.  To  be  sure,  it  does  seem
to  be  the  tendency  of  all  scientific  methods  to  reduce
things  to  a  perfect  mechanism.  The  ideal  employment
method  is  undoubtedly  an  immense  machine  which  would
receive  applicants  of  all  kinds  at  one  end,  automatically
sort,  interview,  and  record  them,  and  finally  turn  them
out  at  the  other  end  nicely  labeled  with  the  job  to  which
they  are  to  go.  Those  who  are  horrified  at  such  a  prospect ­
  have  little  to  fear;  for  it  will  be  many  a  day  before
this  consummation  is  reached.  Instead  of  comparing
scientific  selection  with  a  machine  it  is  much  more  reasonable ­
  to  compare  it  with  the  practice  of  medicine.  No
doubt  the  modern  practice  of  medicine  may  seem  like
butchery  compared  with  the  gentle  home  remedies  of
our  imaginative  forefathers.  The  appliances  of  the  physician ­
  make  a  most  threatening  array  and  who  does  not
quail  at  the  mechanisms  of  the  operating  room  ?  And  yet,
we  do  not  generally  think  of  medicine  as  disinterested
and  as  mechanical.  The  surgeon  may  take  our  best
friend  and  rearrange  his  entire  anatomy  without  our  accusing ­
  him  of  being  cold-hearted;  for  medicine  is  a  technique ­
  which  is  larger  than  the  particular  intentions  of
a  particular  physician.  The  entire  aim  of  medicine  is
the  welfare  of  the  human  being.  Particular  physicians
may  be  mechanical  and  disinterested  in  their  attitude
toward  their  patients.  However,  the  generous  aim  of
their  science  far  outshadows  their  own  pettiness.  With