Abstract
THE French school of psychologists, led by Dumas and Pieron, have many important investigations to their credit. In their work, the refinement of detail is happily harmonised with those broad synthetic views which connote the classical character of the French mind. The collective treatise on psychology which will be completed in nine volumes, and of which vols. 2 and 3 are under review, is an outstanding result of team work relating to one of the most exacting of sciences. While the first volume, published some time ago, dealt mainly with questions of method, the second volume is devoted to the foundations of mental life. Here we find a detailed analysis of the relations between various kinds of stimuli and the reflexes, movements and secretions of the body; also of the sensitive and affective elements of mental life, such as the various types of sensations, pleasure and pain, emotions and tendencies; and finally of imagery and the relations between image and thought. All these questions are well treated by G. Dumas, H. Pieron, A. Mayer, B. Bourdon, J. Larguier des Bancels and I. Meyerson. The study of the affective states (especially of emotion and of pleasure and pain) by Prof. G. Dumas and the monograph on images by I. Meyerson are remarkable examples of orderly exposition and unbiased discussion, of results.
Nouveau traité de psychologie.
Par Prof. Georges Dumas. Tome 2: Les fondements de la vie mentale. Pp. vi + 612. Tome 3: Les associations sensitivo-motrices; l'équilibre et l'orientation, l'expression des émotions, les mimiques, le langage. Pp. vi + 462. (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1932–1933.) 100 francs each.
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GREENWOOD, T. Nouveau traité de psychologie . Nature 135, 86 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135086a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135086a0