sider mental life from a
psychological point of view. The psychologists were certainly not to be
blamed for sticking to their theoretical interests. More than that,
they were certainly justified in their reluctance, as everything was in
the making, and incomplete theories can easily do more harm than good.
But slowly a certain consolidation has set in; large sets of facts have
been secured, and psychology seems better prepared to become serviceable
to the practical tasks. On the other hand, it has been noticeable for
some time that not a few of the psychological results have gone over
into unprofessional hands and have been thrown on the market places and
have been brought into many a home where no one knew how to deal with
them rightly. Thus the need seems urgent that the psychologists give up
their over-reserved attitude and recognize it as their duty to serve the
needs of the community.

It is not sufficient for that end, simply to take odds and ends of
psychology and to hand them over to anyone who can see some use for
them. We must have a systematic scientific work done for the special
purpose of adjusting psychological knowledge to the definite practical
tasks and of examining the psychological facts with that practical end
in view. A science must be developed which is related to psychology as
engineering is related to physics and chemistry. Just as the
technological laboratories of the engineer bring out many new problems
which the physicist would never have approached, in the same way we may
expect that special institutions for applied psychology will shape the
psychological inquiry in a new way.

Such a new science of applied psychology of course has before it a
field just as large and manifold as the field of technology, where
physical engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and
electrical engineering and so on are separated. Such a future
psychological technology would deal, for instance, with
psychopedagogical problems. There belongs everything which refers to the
psychology of memory or attention, of discipline, of fatigue, of habit,
of imitation or effort; in short, all those mental factors which have to
be considered whenever the schoolchild is looked on from a causal point
of view. Further there is the psycholegal field where the memory and the
perceptions, the suggestibility and the emotions of the witness are to
be studied, where the psychological conditions which lead to crime, the