The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-10
The Dominant Self
By H. ADDINGToN BRUcE

John Wright Buckham, professor of Christian theology in Pacific School of Re ligion, has written a book, Personality and Psychology" that would recommend to all whose faith in the traditional view of the unity and spirituality of the human self has been disturbed, perhaps shattered, by ac- quaintance with certain trends in modern psychology. z4y
 These trends, to put it briefly, are in the direction of variously depicting man as al- most, if not quite selfless, as governed by instinet-particularly the sex instinct even as a mere mechanism responding auto matically to this or that stimulus from out side. "a.
 In this last case, necessarily, whatever the self may be, it is a self incapable of thinking for itself. And, indeed, by the ex- ponents of this curious jazz psychology which goes by the name of behaviorism- personality is reduced to the status of ian organized set of reactions" and thought is held to be responsive "sub-vocal talk ing"
 The behayiorists do, to be sure, recognize that there is an individual something that responds and that becomes organized. Con corning the nature of that individual some thing they are discreetly vague. Much to the point is Professor Buckham's criticism
 Because, when >one thinks, there is an experimentally determinable process of mus cular contractions as well as molecular ones thought consists of either the muscu- lar or brain changes, or both? As well say that because when a flower blooms certain chemical processes take place, therefore the flower is nothing more than these processes.
 It is quite true thaty'without the chem ieal action there would be no flower, but to say that that, and nothing else, is the flower would be to say that there is no flower. So, to say that behavior constitutes person. ality is equivalent to saying that there is no such thing as personality"
 Having in mind this behaviorist doctrine, the overseeing of freudian psychology, and the zeal with which sundry psychologists otherwise minimize personality, it is small wonder that Professor Buekham demands, Has psychology gone daftW Nevertheless, in all fairness, it should at once be added that the alterations he deplores are by no means shared by every psychologist.
 Large numbers of psychologists he quotes from the writings of some of these have anticipated him in attacking behavior ism, freudism and other 'isms in present-day psychology So voluminons and emphatic is the criticizing by psychologists themselves that it may we'll be held that the self as a unified spiritual entity still is dominant in the main current of psychological thinking. 
 Only, unfortunately, the critics of the isms for the most part express their dis approval mainly in professional jargon, hence have failed to make On the lay public the corrective impression they could and should make. For this reason, even though it somewhat over-rates the. significance of the 'isms in psychology, there is room and need for book like Professor Buckham's.
 Certainly, too, besides having corrective value it has a distinct inspirational value in its statement of the part a sound psychol- ogy can play in helping men to the ,realiza- tion of personal and social ideals
 -"Whaf really matters," . is the way Pro lessor Buckham puts it. lis how to develop the latent personal manhood or womanhood that makes one of worth in Himself and an asset to society. :. -. If psychology, by en- abling men to understand themselves and their fellows better, furnishes help in this great task . it will fulfill a most valuable service to humanity"
 And, it should be clearly understood, there are not lacking psychologists striving diligently to this important end.