Spencer Heath Archive

Item 956

Pencil notes presumably from a book or lecture by Dr. Prescott Lecky, Professor of Psychology, University of California. Because of the difficulty of transcribing these notes, extra care should be taken in accepting given words as Heath’s.

 March 1934?

 Original -> 947

 

 

 

 

 

Seven schools of psychology. All different. No agreement. No aid to the social sciences.

Trouble is the belief in our being mechanisms. New physics has broken away. Studied individual. Science always studied groups before.

Psychology must study the individual.

Two figures of speech, employed: Telegraph system. Hydraulic system. Responding to external force. Telegraph is force from outside. Hydraulic is force from inside. The problem then is reducing to fitting the facts to the figure. However, they stand for experimentation.

But the more facts found the more inadequate the figures of speech. New figure of speech needed.

We must create a system by organizing the facts.

Mechanism excludes purpose. Only Adler tolerates purpose.

 

Behaviorism —

Havelock calls reflexes by purposive names.

Freudians put the purpose into the instincts. Found Adler the best.

Must have purpose, but only one purpose. Otherwise we have a hydraulic system.

Must be unity of action and unity of organization. The first is physiological, the second psychological. The second is the one we will consider.

The infant’s self is his center. He and his mother are primary. The first problem is to take in the father. This calls for much adjustment. Then the circle must widen. Then in marriage the others are displaced and the mate becomes the main support of the personality.

The problem of maintaining the self in all its contacts and relations to maintain its value of Itself.

Feelings hurt or insult. Commonest problem. An insult is a low value thrust into the experience. You can’t assimilate it. Would upset the system. Must throw it out. Must do something about it. (1) Retaliation is the most obvious reaction. (2) Apology also can relieve. Freud does not explain this — no energy outlet in apology. (3) Revaluation — Consider the source.

The same is true if the low value is imputed to someone else within the self-organization to one we love. More reaction against this than other.

Defense is against low values — inconsistencies. Must have a defense mechanism. Commonest is laughter. Laugh it off. Sense of the organization being strong enough. Thesis explains all laughter. Pain is funny because it can’t be assimilated in the language system.

Pains have to be laughed off and can’t be remembered — unless you /value?/ them for use yourself.

Can’t tickle yourself. So tickling can’t be explained on old lines. Tickling is a mild attack. Can’t tickle ourselves because we can’t attack ourselves.

Values are upset because situations change.

Nursery school teaching is bad — bunk. Too much freedom. No responsibility. Not wanted in first grade and kindergarten.

Can’t help a person by attacking his values. “Who are you anyhow?” This only increases the tension.

We have to eliminate blame entirely. The problem is to maintain the consistency of the system of values. Don’t attack another’s value. Help him to make it consistent. Help him to verbalize and objectivize his problem. Show him how two values are incompatible.

Bashfulness comes not from inferiority feeling but from high values of self and fear they will not be supported.

Spelling — Most excited about it. Boy couldn’t spell. Bad spelling is only in the native language. Never in acquired ones. He decided he was a poor speller and so he is true to himself. But this idea conflicts with other values — social values. Otherwise he would have misspelled every word.