The New Psychology

Extract

My choice of subject for this address has not been altogether fortunate, and what I have to say will need your indulgence. Having fixed the subject hastily when I had the honour to receive your secretary's invitation, I soon found, on taking stock of my knowledge, that I had no clear idea what the new psychology was, what it had done, and on what the claim sometimes made for it to supersede an old and effete system was grounded. A new method of study making large promises was evident enough, but of the new conquests which are to revolutionize psychology I must confess ignorance. My remarks, then, will be critically interrogative, on purpose made to elicit definite information. If that light be forthcoming it will prove how little mere theoretical criticism is worth.