The psychology of behaviour; a practical study of human personality and conduct with special reference to methods of development

Contents

CHAPTER I jrs

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Some New Aspects of Mind — The Psychology of the

CHAPTER II Intellect — The Psychology of Perception .... 53

Intellect, the Objective Self-Knowing Phase of Consciousness — Distinctions between It and the Unconv vi CONTENTS

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scious — Intellect our only Medium for Reaching the Interior Consciousness — Its Attribute of Discrimination renders it the Guiding Faculty — Comparable to the "man at the head" of any Large Organization — How to Train the Intellect — Development of Judgment and Sense of Values — Reasoning, Conscious and Subconscious — Importance of Logic — Intellect as the Supplying Agent — Intellect as the Adjusting Agent — Intellect as the Controlling Agent — Developing Attention — Importance of Sustaining it with Interest and Desire — Concentration, means of Development — How far Objective Matters should be made Automatic — Objective Control of Internal Organs of the Body — Value of Voluntary Passivity and Meditation — An Antidote to Modern Excessiveness and Over- Stimulation — Unconscious Rumination — Directed Thinking and Value of "Silence" — Intellect the Door to the Greater Possibilities of the Mind.

CHAPTER III Imagination and Memory — The Psychology of Extension and Retention 110

Imagination: Reproductive — Impressibility of the Mind — Memory, Conscious and Subconscious — Nothing is Ever Forgotten — A Good Memory Dependent on Concentration — Fixed Ideas — The Imaginative Temperament — Readjustment of Mental Images — Imagination: Productive — The Source of Originality — Imagination the Inception of all Action — Conscious Visualization — Two Kinds of Imaginative Thinking, a. The Aimless; b. The Directed — The Value of Reverie and Relaxed Thinking — The Imagination an Outlet for Repressed Energies — The Cause of Intoxication — All Mental Images must Materialize — Expectation Plus Intention — The Pathology of Repressed Imagination — Loss of the Sense of Reality — Education of the Child's Imagination — "Imaginary" Diseases — Dangers of Uncontrolled Imagination — All Mental Images Should Materialize in Action — Transmuting Undesirable Mental Images.

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Chapter IV Page

Will — The Psychology of Action 146

Will Synonymous with Power: a Basic Manifestation of the Life-Force and Representative of the Volition of the Universal Mind — Will is Desire in Action — Will-power vs. Fate — Free-will: dependent upon Unity with the Universal Will — Shallow Conceptions of Will — All Actions are the Expression of Desire — Conflict Between Conscious and Unconscious Will — Will to be Successful must be: a. Unified in Itself; b. Concentrated in its Action; c. Balanced with Intellect and Emotion — The Weakness of Indecision — Lack of Self-knowledge in Questions of Desire — Need of Choosing a Goal — Need of Reflection before Action — The Dangers of Negativity — Lack of Self- Confidence — Following Lines of Least Resistance — The Force of Habit — Influence of Opinions of Others — Conflict of Will with Emotion — Erratic Results of the Use of the Will — Different Phases of the Personality Assume Control — Need of Unity in the Desires — Need of Belief in Desire as a Guide — When Emotions Frustrate Will — How to Develop the Will — Overdoing the Use of the Will — Effortless Activity — Three Steps in any Act of the Will: Concept, Intention, Execution — -The Discrepancy Between Intention and Execution Man's Greatest Weakness — The Importance of Intention — Leads to Executive Ability — Executiveness Without Creativeness — The Need of the Affirmative Attitude — Mastery of the Power of the Unconscious — Determination the Equivalent of Causation.

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CHAPTER V Emotion — The Psychology of Feeling 191

Feeling a Generic Motive Power — Instinct is Physiological Feeling; Emotion is Psychological Feeling — Impulse is Unconscious Feeling — Civilization represents the Development of an Awareness and Control of Feeling — Emotion now largely Superseded by Intellect — Feeling affords Deeper Revelation than Intellect — Emotional Repression and its Dangers — Applied Psychology establishes the Balance between viii CONTENTS

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Will Power and Emotional Power — Study of the four principal Negative Emotions: Fear, Anger, Grief, Self-love — When reduced to their Constructive Elements these become Positive Emotions — Confidence, Love, Joy, and Expansiveness — Necessity and Value of Emotion — Dangers in Excessive or Uncontrolled Emotion — Pleasure and Pain: terms representative of Desire Satisfied (positive form), Desire Unsatisfied (negative form) — Superiority to either Pleasure or Pain the Ideal State — The Need of Natural Expression — Study of Subconscious Conflicts and Inhibitions — Psycho-analysis as an Interpreter of the Subconscious Emotional Life — Harmonizing Incompatible Mental and Emotional States: a. by Conscious Recognition and Transmutation; b. by Re-education and Development of True Sensuousness — Pathological Results of Internal Discords — Various Emotional Outlets: Wit and Laughter, Play, Dramatization, Music, Dancing, Painting, Craftsmanship, Intoxication, and various Psycho-neurotie States — Abstract Emotions: Love of Beauty, Freedom, Wisdom, Humanity, Truth — The Joy of Responsiveness — How to Balance Emotion and Intellect.

CHAPTER VI Sex — The Psychology of the Creative Life . . .281

Sex of Paramount Importance — General Ignorance concerning it — The Necessity for Clear Knowledge — Definition of Sex as the great Creative Principle — The Psychology of Sex Undeveloped as yet — Should be treated Metaphysically and Philosophically, as well as Psychologically — The Pathology of Sex — Sex-Education should begin in Childhood — The Idea of "Animal Instincts" repressed in the Human Consciousness — Study of Natural Sciences in Childhood a Partial Corrective — Misconceptions Concerning Sex — Its Personal Value not less Important than its Racial Value — Sex not merely a Physical Function — Instinctive Sex: Appetite or Sensation Only — Sex as an Emotion or Idea — Regeneration and Transmutation: Mental and Moral Creativeness — Analysis of the Sex-Feeling — Based on the Positive and Negative Elements contained in the Masculine

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and Feminine Principles — Man Positive on the External Plane, Woman Positive on the Internal Plane — Woman the True Leader in all Sex-Relations — Co-operation and Equality the Secret of Sex-Happiness — Personal Possibilities in Sex: a. Physical, b. Emotional (Analysis of the Love-Feeling), c. Psychical, d. Intellectual, e. Spiritual (Search for the Ideal and the Completion of the Self) — Social and Economic Problems in Relation to the Personal Sex-Problem.