Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

278 Jean Piaget
or eliminated (for instance, speech in aphasia): the results of this natural ex-
periment are then examined by means of clinical observations or tests, and
classified among the contributions to general psychology, depending on the
trend. In the second place, pathological disintegrations generally take place
in the opposite order to psychogenetical integrations, so that the great psycho-
pathologists have nearly all ended by adding developmental considerations to
their doctrines which is precicely what Freud and Janet did. These investigations
thus again come within the framework of the trends examined earlier.
On the other hand, psychotherapeutic medical practice increasingly needs the
collaboration of psychologists, to such a point that in some countries, such as
the USA, there is not a single psychiatric clinic, whatever its special branch, that
has not recruited specialized, or ‘clinical psychologists’. The psychologists, of
course, practise neither psychotherapy, which is the doctor’s task, nor even, as
a rule, psychoanalysis; their r61e is to supply psychological data for the pur-
poses of diagnosis. In this connexion, many studies have been conducted,
bearing either on tests or other methods devised for examining the cognitive
functions in mental diseases, or else, and above all, on affective reactions and
personality. For the use of so-called projective tests, such as the Rorschach test,
the TAT (Thematic Apperception Test), etc., presuppose advanced specializa-
tion and considerable personal experience, as do also the psychodrama tech-
nique and many others that have been developed in this connexion both by pure
psychologists, like Murray, and by medical psychologists, like Rorschach him-
self. Such research will sooner or later contribute to the construction of a
theory of the personality, though that is still in its very early stages. Apart from
the fact that this research will have to be supplemented by a body of experimental
work which will often be difficult to reconcile with the exacting duties of ‘clinical
psychologists’, it wil also have to be based on a substratum of neurology which
still appears to be singularly lacking today.
w. In addition to its applications in the fields of education and pathology, psychology
is increasingly used in the organization of work generally. The point is,
lirstly, to guide individuals according to their edurational level and aptitudes,
this being the duty of vocational guidance as an extension of school guidance.
But, secondly, the point also is, once the qualified people have been selected
and given employment, to work out, in the organization of individual or group
labour, the most economical techniques, in the broad sense of saving superfluous
or ill-directed and unco-ordinated efforts, and the most human techniques,
in the sense of optimal motivation: hence ‘ergology’, a recent but increasingly
favoured branch of study. Moreover, it is obvious that, with technological
progress, new problems related to the psychology of work are arising all the
time and that in contemporary ‘machine-men’ situations, this branch will be
called upon to play a part of no little importance; not only as means of reducing
the dangers of the system, but also as an indispensable cog in the mechanism of
the new human powers of adaptation required.
It is only natural and understandable that psychologists who are enthusiastic
about applied psychology should tend somewhat to overrate the real possibili-