Whenever, in the future, what he calls “the purposive view” shall be resurrected from the obscurity and nescience to which he has assigned it, and really habilitated in the garb of Science, and recognized as the lawful spouse of the causal, we shall indeed have a true Psychology, a Science of the Human Soul.
Münsterberg neither scouts nor denies the possibility of such a future discovery. In the meantime, his viewpoint, and necessarily some of his conclusions and generalizations, are one-sided, and out of focus.
Emphasizing the causal as he does, this could hardly be otherwise; and from this point of view, and for this reason, his practical Psychotherapy is purely empirical.
We need not deny his facts, or his results, even when mixed with hypnosis, more than he does the “cures” in “Christian Science,” “Faith Cures,” at Lourdes, or by the “laying on of hands.” All these things are too well known, and not one of them deserves the name of Science. They are solely empirical methods. Münsterberg’s broader view and deeper analysis give to his methods great prominence, and he can point to no results that transcend the others. These facts and these results are as old as the history of man. They have, even as he points out, constituted epidemics of “cure.”
There is, moreover, a scientific view and method regarding what he calls the purposive view which he overlooks entirely, and which by emphasis of the causal, makes seemingly impossible. It is our purpose to try and make this clear.
His analysis of Suggestion, though largely automatic, is well-nigh exhaustive. Awareness, and Attention, are illustrated copiously; but not clearly differentiated as they may be, and actually are in the experience of individual life.
Fortunately, and wisely, he eliminates the “Subconscious” as having no real meaning or scientific value as now used.
But it might be applied to the Mental awareness of physiological automatism (bodily habits, often beginning in an act of will, or attention; writing, speaking, music, dancing, and the like, and in less degree, all life impulses and movements below the line of attention or awareness).
If, by courtesy, these might be called sub-conscious, then there is another group above the habitual plane of awareness, that, by equal courtesy, might be called Supra-conscious. But, unless it is remembered, as Münsterberg points out, that, regardless of phenomena, Consciousness is one, these terms can only lead to confusion.
Certain cases designated “multiple” or “dissociated personalities” have only served to increase this confusion still further; and more especially, when the effort has been made to patch them together, or to control them from without, by hypnosis. The well-known case of “Sally,” reported by Dr. Morton Prince, stands at last, as a “personally conducted” psychological excursion, with Sally still preserving her incognito, and as much a mystery as ever.