Why should a practising physician write
on personality ? Should not this task be undertaken
by an erudite psychologist, who is au fait with all
the intricacies of mental science. The answer may be,
that Personality is essentially a practical entity and not
a theoretical composition. Moreover, the physician,
especially if he practise amongst those who are instable
in body and mind, is constantly brought up against
all sorts and conditions of personalities. He must
sfudy these personalities with care, he must analyse,
to find out what are the symptoms of ill- health, yet
he must never lose sight of the total synthesis. To
treat individual symptoms is futile, to treat the patient
as a whole, in all his relations, individual and social,
is essential. Thus a conception of personality is gained,
which is rather different from that of the professional
psychologist. It is in the hope that this conception,
however inadequately expressed, may be of some interest and use, that this task has been undertaken.MANY psychologists have endeavoured to present an
adequate explanation of Personality, but it still remains
a somewhat vague conception, such as is beloved by the
journalist, since he may twist it to fit any meaning he
chooses. To define the term is a matter of difficulty, for
Personality is one of those concepts which all of us take
for granted as having a concise meaning, until we try to
express that meaning in words. One reason of this difficulty is that most definitions are given in terms of the
component parts of the whole, whereas Personality can
only have a meaning if thought of in terms of a synthesis.
The first and most general impulse of mankind when he
wants to understand is to take the watch to pieces, to see
how the wheels go round. It is only later and in certain
cases that there is any enthusiasm to put it together
again and understand its construction. Apart from this,
however, few people, except those who have given special
study to the subject, are at all clear as to what they wish
to define when they talk of Personality. The difference
between such terms as the ego, the character, and the
personality, is not realized, and they are apt to become
interchangeable
