Editorial February 15, 1930 Issue

A Current Topic

Clifford P. Smith

Psychology is defined as "the science of the human mind or soul." For the present discussion, it can be defined as the methodical study of the so-called human mind. Psychologists are said to pursue this study for the sake of mental facts and processes alone, apart from their consequences or values. Christian Scientists also study the so-called human mind, but for a different purpose and from a different point of view. We are interested in the divine Mind, which we regard as the only Principle of thought, and in man as the conscious emanation and manifestation thereof. We are concerned about what seem to be other mental states, associated with ourselves or with other people, only for the purpose of gaining salvation therefrom. In this endeavor, evidently, we may be aided by a discriminating acquaintance with the false elements in the human mind, even though we depend on knowing the real Mind and the real man; hence, we may be aided, to a limited extent, by casual touch with aspects of psychology.

For instance, there is "behaviorism," a branch of psychology that has a great vogue just now. Those who make a specialty of this study are described as "behaviorists." The nature of behaviorism is shown by the following quotation from the Encyclopædia Britannica (Thirteenth Ed. Supp., Vol. 1, p. 345): "So far in his objective study of man no behaviourist has observed anything that he can call consciousness, sensation, perception, imagery or will. Not finding these so-called mental processes in his observations, he has reached the conclusion that all such terms can be dropped out of the description of man's activity. All behaviouristic observations apparently can be presented in the form of stimulus and response." In short, behaviorism teaches that any man's activity consists only of his responses, without consciousness or volition, to the stimuli furnished by his environment. Even general psychology emphasizes the almost exclusive importance of influences that are external to ourselves, especially those which come to us "through social impress."

The foregoing information may be useful to Christian Scientists for several reasons. For one thing, the practice of our religion, its application to human life, can be regarded as choosing between influences and maintaining the choice of good in spite of contrary difficulties. In human life, good is the beneficial action and influence of the divine Mind, while evil is what seems to be an opposite influence coming to the human self as impulses or suggestions. (See "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 104, 462.) In reality, man derives his entire character and government from God, the divine Principle of being, and there is no opposite influence; there is no other source. As seen by Christian Science, therefore, behaviorism challenges the practice of our religion; it contradicts the fundamental facts of being; it denies all that the real man is; and it deserves attention as the latest form of atheism.

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