Psychology Books

INTRODUCTION. There is no doubt that hypnotism is a very old subject, though the name was not invented till 1850. In it was wrapped up the "mysteries of Isis" in Egypt thousands of years ago, and probably it was one of the weapons, if not the chief instrument of operation, of the magi mentioned in the Bible and of the "wise men" of Babylon and Egypt. "Laying on of hands" must... more...

EROTIC SYMBOLISM. I. The Definition of Erotic Symbolism—Symbolism of Act and Symbolism of Object—Erotic Fetichism—Wide extension of the symbols of Sex—The Immense Variety of Possible Erotic Fetiches—The Normal Foundations of Erotic Symbolism—Classification of the Phenomena—The Tendency to Idealize the Defects of a Beloved Person—Stendhal's "Crystallization." By "erotic... more...

CHAPTER ITHE PROBLEM DEFINED What is sex? Asexual and mixed reproduction; Origin of sexual reproduction; Advantage of sex in chance of survival; Germ and body cells; Limitations of biology in social problems; Sex always present in higher animals; Sex in mammals; The sex problem in the human species; Application of laboratory method. Sex, like all complicated phenomena, defies being crowded into a... more...

I. THE PROBLEM OF ANÆSTHESIA DURING EYE-MOVEMENT. A first suggestion of the possible presence of anæsthesia during eye-movement is given by a very simple observation. All near objects seen from a fairly rapidly moving car appear fused. No further suggestion of their various contour is distinguishable than blurred streaks of color arranged parallel, in a hazy stream which flows rapidly past toward the... more...

The Senses in the Lower Animals The sense of touch—The senses of taste and smell—Actinophryans having taste—The sense of sight—Modification of sight organs by surroundings—Sight in Actinophryans—Blind fish sensitive to light—Blind spiders—Blind man—Primitive eyes in Cymothoe—In the jelly-fish, sea-urchin, Alciope, Myrianida—The sight organs of the snail—Power of vision in the... more...

THE REPRODUCTION OF LIVING BEINGS History of the Germ:—Cell-division—Parthenogenesis—Conjugation—Mneme—Embryological Development— Difference of the Sexes—Castration—Hermaphrodism— Heredity—Blastophthoria. A general law of organic life decrees that every living individual is gradually transformed in the course of a cycle which is called individual life, and which terminates with... more...

Chapter ITHE TWO FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES OF MINDMind as a Means to AchievementIn the preceding book, "Psychology and Achievement," we established the truth of two propositions: I. All human achievement comes about through bodily activity. II. All bodily activity is caused, controlled and directed by the mind. To these two fundamental propositions we now append a third, which needs no proof, but... more...

I The fact of sexual need in man and animal is expressed in biology by the assumption of a "sexual impulse." This impulse is made analogous to the impulse of taking nourishment, and to hunger. The sexual expression corresponding to hunger not being found colloquilly, science uses the expression "libido." Popular conception makes definite assumptions concerning the nature and qualities... more...

SEXUAL INVERSION. CHAPTER I.—INTRODUCTION. Homosexuality Among Animals—Among the Lower Human Races—The Albanians—The Greeks—The Eskimos—The Tribes of the Northwest United States—Homosexuality Among Soldiers in Europe—Indifference Frequently Manifested by European Lower Classes—Sexual Inversion at Rome—Homosexuality in Prisons—Among Men of Exceptional Intellect and Moral... more...

RELIGION AND NEUROLOGY It is with no small amount of trepidation that I take my place behind this desk, and face this learned audience. To us Americans, the experience of receiving instruction from the living voice, as well as from the books, of European scholars, is very familiar. At my own University of Harvard, not a winter passes without its harvest, large or small, of lectures from Scottish,... more...