PSYCHOLOGY
AND PARENTHOOD

BY
H. ADDINGTON BRUCE
Author of “The Riddle of Personality,” “ScientificMental Healing,” etc.

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
1919

Copyright, 1915
By DODD, MEAD & COMPANY

TO
MY SISTER
ROBERTA BRUCE PEMBERTON

vii

The chief aim of this informal “handbook for parents”is to review and unify, in non-technical language,the findings of modern psychology whichbear especially on the laws of mental and moralgrowth. The time has come when it is not onlydesirable but necessary to attempt something of thissort; for in the course of their labours the educational,medical, and social psychologists have accumulateda mass of data revealing unsuspecteddefects, and hinting at marvellous possibilities, inthe upbringing of the young.

On the one hand, they have shown that not enoughheed has been paid to the hampering influences ofan unfavourable environment and physical maladjustment;and, on the other hand, they have made itclear that, by instituting certain reforms, it is entirelyfeasible to develop mental and moral vigour inthe mass of mankind to an astonishing degree. Myviiiown belief, indeed, for reasons set forth in subsequentpages, is that the discoveries of the modern psychologistsjustify the assertion that, through propertraining in childhood, it is possible to create a raceof men and women far superior morally to the generaltyof the world’s inhabitants to-day, and manifestingintellectual powers of a far higher order thanthe generalty now display.

Whether this belief will ever be vindicated—whether,for the matter of that, the discoveries ofrecent psychological research will prove of any realvalue—depends, of course, on the extent to whichpractical application is made by those having chargeof the young, and particularly by parents. For thefact most surely established by the scientific investigatorsis that it is in the first years of life, and inthe influences of the home, that the forces are set inmotion which count for most in the making or marringof the individual’s character and career. Parentalresponsibility is consequently much greaterthan most parents suppose; but so is parental opportunity.This book accordingly is addressed primarilyto parents in the hope that it may be of someassistance to them in avoiding the pitfalls, anddeveloping the possibilities, of that most importantof all human activities—the training of the nextgeneration.

Portions of the book have already appeared invarious periodicals—The Century Magazine, TheOutlook, McClure’s Magazine, etc.—and to the editorsof these publications I owe a word of gratefulacknowledgment. I am also under obligations tonumerous medical and psychological friends for valuableinformation. But most of all, as always, Iam indebted to my wife, whose critical reading of themanuscript has resulted in many helpful suggestions.

H. Addington Bruce.    

Cambridge, Massachusetts,
    February, 1915.