The chief aim of this book is twofold. It is a negative one: I want to counteract the misunderstandings which overflood the whole field, especially by the careless mixing of mental and moral influence. And a positive one: I want to strengthen the public feeling that the time has come when every physician should systematically study psychology, the normal in the college years and the abnormal in the medical school.
-from the Preface

Whether or not you approve of the culture of mass psychology that resulted from the work of Hugo Münsterberg, his continuing impact on American society is inestimable. From the reliance on standardized testing in public schools to the corporate perspective on employees as "human resources," the practical applications of psychology to industry, medicine, education, the arts, criminal investigation, and the social order that he pioneered still exert a dramatic influence on how we, a century later, continue to think about the mind and how it shapes human behavior.

In this seminal 1909 volume, Münsterberg explores:
. the psychological basis of psychotherapy
. the general methods of psychotherapy
. mental and bodily symptoms psychotherapy can address
. psychotherapy and its relationship to church and community.

Also available from Cosimo Classics: Münsterberg's Psychology and Social Sanity, The Eternal Life, The War and America, and American Traits

OF INTEREST TO: medical students, readers of popular psychology


German-American psychologist and philosopher HUGO MÜNSTERBERG (1863-1916) was professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1892 until his death. He was elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1898.