You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
There is no preface to this book, but criticism is somewhat disarmed by the publishers' note on the paper cover, which starts with 'This book is intended, not for the scientific man, but for the general reader'. Scientific men, especially scientific physicians, are seldom at their best when they address the 'general reader' and this may account for the fact that Dr. Paton, who used to be known as a scientific physician, rather falls from grace in his most recent contribution to literature.
Just as in former days much was made of the art of Logic, intended to teach us how we ought to think without regard to how we do think, so the object of Dr. Paton's book is to tell us how to 'direct our actions intelligently', taking little or no notice of the unconscious forces which compel us to act otherwise.
It seems rather paradoxical that the author should immediately proceed to support the doctrine of heredity, implying trends which presumably no amount of intelligent action could surmount. He gives the charts of a family of which many were clever shipdesigners and another of a family of educationists. Most hereditarians would surely regard it as an extension of their point of view to suppose that such interests could be acquired pre-natally.
Then comes a chapter in support of the long exploded myth 'Mens sana in corpore sano'. We have all met insane people in perfect physical health and history records many instances of great thinkers who suffered from chronic physical disease. Indeed so strong is the author's conviction that the body controls the mind that he regards a 'stable emotional condition' as dependent upon a well regulated endocrine secretion and says nothing about endocrine secretion being influenced by emotion.
But Dr. Paton is not really so materialistic as this chapter would lead us to suppose. He goes on to discuss soundness of mind from a purely psychological standpoint. This is the best part of the book. In places the matter is distinctly Freudian and