Professor Josey belongs to that group of American psychologists who hold that the concept of Instinct, so far from being as useful as is generally supposed, is of no real assistance for the understanding or control of human affairs, and by affording easy but worthless explanations of phenomena, the essential determinants of which are to be sought elsewhere, exercises a harmful influence on psychology and sociology. The trouble arises, he maintains, through instincts being regarded as forces; such forces are purely mythical. The notions to which they correspond are the lineal descendants of the idea that human conduct, in so far as it presents difficulties for comprehension, is due to the direct