The poet creates mental life in suggesting it to the soul of the reader;
only the man who decomposes it afterward is a psychologist. The poet
works as life works; the child who smiles and weeps causes us to think
of pleasure and pain, too, but it offers us no psychological
understanding of pleasure and pain. Just so the poet smiles and weeps,
and if he is a great artist, with strong suggestive power, he forces our
minds to feel with him, while we have only an intellectual interest if
he merely analyzes the emotions... -from "Psychology and Art" Whether or
not you approve of the culture of mass psychology that resulted from the
work of Hugo Münsterberg, his continuing impact on American society is
inestimable. From the reliance on standardized testing in public schools
to the corporate perspective on employees as "human resources," the
practical applications of psychology to industry, medicine, education,
the arts, criminal investigation, and the social order that he pioneered
still exert a dramatic influence on how we, a century later, continue to
think about the mind and how it shapes human behavior. In this seminal
1899 book, Münsterberg explores: . the psychological view of personality
. the biological development of the psychophysical apparatus . the
teaching of psychology . psychology of the child . the artist as
psychologist . psychology and history . psychology and mysticism . and
much more. Also available from Cosimo Classics: Münsterberg's The
Eternal Life, Science and Idealism, Psychology and Social Sanity, The
War and America, American Traits, and Psychotherapy OF INTEREST TO:
students of psychology, readers of social history AUTHOR BIO:
German-American psychologist and philosopher HUGO MÜNSTERBERG
(1863-1916) was professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1892
until his death. He was elected president of the American Psychological
Association in 1898.
