The Carlisle independent., 1920-10-28
QUEST OF THE ABNORMAL

King Solomon, if he were writing today under the influence of the new psychology, would put things differ ently. He would not say, Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise.o He would say "Go to the sluggard, thou ant; consider his complexes, and be wise" For it is the essence of the new psychology that the secret of life is not in the normal but in the abnormal, not in the healthy man but in the neurotic, not in the WeIl-endowed child but in the defective child, not in the healthy na- ton but in the sick nation. The main spring of life's activities is found not in conscious motives but unconscious compleXes, not in expansion but in re- pression. The explanation for pretty nearly everything that has gone on in the world rests in the mouth of Freud
 Education has caught the prejudice against normality. Because Montes- osri was successful with the use of blocks and pictures for handicapped children, blocks and pictures must supplant reading and writing for per fectly normal children. It is now pos sible to take a little girl who would learn to read at the age of six if turned loose with Mother Goose and a slice of bread-and-jam, and by apply ing all the principles deduced from a study of defective children teach her how to read at the age of 10. What IS good enough for the mentally weak ought to be good enough for the mentally sound.
 Criticism, literary, social, economic has caught the slant in favor of the abnormal. Mark Twain whose laugh ter shook the world, was in reality a tragic victim of repressions. When Saul of Tarsus became Paul 1t was not conversion but reversion; he was the victim of an Oedipus complex We are not aware whether Francis of AssizZi and Charles Dickens have been as yet accounted for in the same manner, but we may be sure that no complexes on the part of young crit ics will be allowed to repress such |; revaluation of Francis and Charles.
 What is good enough for nations with shattered nerves ought to be good enough for healthy nations. Bolshevism is good enough for Rus sia it is just the right thing for France and Great Britian and Amer ica. Such at least would be the logi- cal argument from the neurotic hy- pothesis. It is only necessary to prove that the western nations hay been as badly repressed as Russia was under the czars; that our democ- racy is no democracy, that our free press is sham, that our workers are serfs-and there you are.
 Behind it all is the human instinct to try out a new jack knife on all the furniture in the house. Because psy- choanalysis is real help in explain ing the hysterical woman, it must be made to explain the healthy woman Because defective children may be helped by special educational treat ment, all children must be put into the hands of the specialist. Because Freudism will explain per cent of the world 1t must be stretched into explaining the other 98 per cent.
 From this patent-medicine attitude there are signs of a pleasing reaction Already the fairly healthy notions of Western Europe have rejected the Romanoff complex as an explanation and a guide. In education there is a growing readiness to recognize that the healthy child has a fair title to be regarded as normal. In literature it may yet turn out that men have been what they wanted to be, and not the opposite. It may yet turn out that history is not altogether hys- teria.-New York Evening Post.