PSYCHOLOGY THROUGH LITERATURE

by Caroline Shrodes and Justine Van Gundy if Richard W. Husband '26. Oxford University Press, 1943- pp. XI+389. $3.50. Richard Husband '26, formerly of the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, has collaborated with Shrodes and Van Gundy, both of the Departments of English and Psychology of Stockton Junior College, to edit an anthology which is unique and outstanding. Psychologists have long been awed by the skill and power of great writers to delineate human motives; they have always felt the need to refer students to such works. The present source-book supplies a considerable part of that need in one convenient volume.

The book is divided into two parts, the first, "The formation of personality," includes literary selections which show the effects of physical handicaps, the influences of the family, those of society at large, emotional conflicts and the learning situation; the second part "adjustment and maladjustment of personality," comprises about one-third of the total selections and represents the literature of dreams and the unconscious, neuroses and psychoses. Each of these eight topics is introduced by a brief, sensitive exposition. A short note which harnesses together the particular reading and the general topic also precedes each selection. The temptation to overwork the interpretation has been avoided.

The fifty-two selections are of a wide variety. Novels, short-stories, drama and poetry are chosen with a range of authors from Shakespeare to Saroyan. Although the greatest number of selections, five, are taken from Shakespeare, the most space is devoted to Romain Rolland's Jean-Christophe. Three selections are made from Marcel Proust and two each from Robert Browning, Virginia Woolf and Somerset Maugham.

Students interested in the psychology of motivation will find these well-chosen examples of literature so rewarding that they will wish to read more. A classified and annotated bibliography of about two hundred literary titles serves such a wish.