Not Understood

Sir,—The vociferous tub-thumping of D.A.P. in his article "Psychology Scorned" amused me. I should have thought that a person so bigoted and ignorant would not have risked an article of this type which was so sure to be analysed for its material worth. The subject of the article is good but, owing to a complete lack of knowledge of his subject D.A.P. fails to get near any useful criticism. He failed to recognise the difference between psychiatry (which deals with the abnormal only) and psychology (which is the complete science) and such a fundamental mistake makes much of his writings meaningless.

D.A.P. states "modern psychology has become a perverted Frankensteinean monster . . . raising in the United States a crop of immoral, semi-illiterate, ignorant and selfish people who cannot think for themselves and sneer at what is right. Whose only standards are Elvis Presley, the Sex-Orgy Hollywood Crowd and the propaganda of political hate merchants—the standards of the wolf pack." Subjecting this to an analysis, the inference is that psychology is responsible for juvenile delinquency, the lack of complete education, and the interest in sex, movies and film stars. The fallacy is obvious because these problems have existed in our society, perhaps in different forms, for longer than modern psychology and the fact that some attempt is being made to control these problems is worth noting. In other words, D.A.P. does not want progress. In many similar passages to the one quoted above D.A.P. lets his fear and ignorance speak and not rationality and as a result the article never rises above the level of prolonged ranting.

Incidentally, if a psychiatrist were given admission to prisoners at Auckland prison it would be for diagnosis of a sick person and if he were sick he would be removed to a mental institution. Here is another case where D.A.P. does not know the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist so his only concrete example which he quotes is wrong.

It is clear to me that D.A.P. ignores the basic issue of juvenile delinquency and says that "the teachers, ministers and scientists" should be brought in. In D.A.P.'s mind a psychologist is not a scientist but a "witch" and he has written his article to the end that a new witch-hunt should start on psychologists. I think D.A.P. has been reading too much medieval history.

—M. J. Bright.