sides of psychology are turned out nowadays in great numbers,
and in the case of many of these we find it impossible to discover any justifiable reason why they should be written, much less published. Of such books is the present one. The title leads us to expect at least some measure of analysis and scientific investigation of one of the most vital and interesting aspects of modern psychology, but in no instance are these expecta- tions fulfilled. The book is entirely superficial and contains a mass of platitudinous statements so well known to even those who have never read a word of psychology that we cannot conceive who is to benefit by their appearance in book form. Here is an example of the sort of thing that goes on for pages and pages :-
"Shyness—that is, the fear of meeting other people—may lead to strain in their presence, and to nervous affections of speech, especially stuttering. Stuttering is a bad habit ; it is not a speech defect, for stutterers can speak perfectly well, so long as they arc alone. The stutterer's spasm varies from case to case ; no two persons stutter alike. . . . I once had within the same week two eases of stutterers suffering from spasm of exactly opposite nature ; one on starting to speak opened his mouth wide and appeared unable to close it, the other pressed his lips firmly together and seemed unable to separate them. Curiously, the latter one I got well ; with the first one I failed."
Buz, Buz ! as Hamlet remarked on a similar occasion.
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