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THE

New Psychology Series

_By_ WILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON


In the past few years a widespread mental and spiritual awakening has
taken place among the people of this country. And this new awakening has
been very aptly called THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY MOVEMENT, because it has to do
with the development and expression of the mind, or soul, of both the
individual and the nation.

  The New Psychology
  The Will
  Memory
  Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion
  The Subconscious and Superconscious Planes of Mind
  The Psychology of Success
  The Art of Logical Thinking
  Thought-Culture
  The Psychology of Salesmanship
  The Art of Expression
  Mind and Body
  Human Nature

Although each book stands alone as an authority on the subject treated,
yet one theme runs through the series, binding them together to make a
complete whole.

The uniform postpaid price of each volume is $1.00

We are making a special price of $10.00 for the entire set


THE PROGRESS COMPANY :: CHICAGO




  THOUGHT-CULTURE
  OR
  PRACTICAL MENTAL TRAINING

  By WILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON


  L.N. FOWLER & COMPANY
  7, Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus
  London, E.C., England


  1909
  THE PROGRESS COMPANY

  CHICAGO, ILL.




  COPYRIGHT, 1910
  BY
  THE PROGRESS COMPANY


  P.F. PETTIBONE & CO
  Printers and Binders
  Chicago




CONTENTS


     I. The Power of Thought      9

    II. The Nature of Thought      19

   III. Phases of Thought      27

    IV. Thought Culture      37

     V. Attention      47

    VI. Perception      57

   VII. Representation      76

  VIII. Abstraction      85

    IX. Association of Ideas      95

     X. Generalization      106

    XI. Judgment      130

   XII. Derived Judgments      138

  XIII. Reasoning      152

   XIV. Constructive Imagination      175




CHAPTER I.

THE POWER OF THOUGHT


In other volumes of this series we have considered the operations of the
human mind known as Will, Memory, etc. We now approach the consideration
of those mental activities which are concerned with the phenomena of
_thought_--those activities which we generally speak of as the operation
of the intellect or reason.

What is thought? The answer is not an easy one, although we use the term
familiarly almost every hour of our waking existence. The dictionaries
define the term "Thought" as follows: "The act of thinking; the exercise
of the mind in any way except sense and perception; serious
consideration; deliberation; reflection; the power or faculty of
thinking; the mental faculty of the mind; etc." This drives us back upon
the term, "to think" which is defined as follows: "To occupy the mind on
some subject; to have ideas; to revolve ideas in the mind; to cogitate;
to reason; to exercise the power of thought; to have a succession of
ideas or mental states; to perform any mental operation, whether of
apprehension, judgment, or illation; to judge; to form a conclusion, to
determine; etc."

Thought is an operation of the intellect. The intellect is: "that
faculty of the human soul or mind by which it receives or comprehends
the ideas communicated to it by the senses or by perception, or other
means, as distinguished from the power to feel and to will; the power or
faculty to perceive objects in their relations; the power to judge and
comprehend; also the capacity for higher forms of knowledge as
distinguished from the power to perceive and imagine."

When we say what we "think," we mean that we exercise the faculties
whereby we compare and contrast certain things with other things,
observing and noting their points of difference and agreement, then
classifying them in accordance with these observed agreements and
differences. In _thinking_ we tend to classify the multitude of
impressions received from the outside world, arranging thousands of
objects into one general class, and other thousands into other general
classes, and then sub-dividing these classes, until finally we have
found mental pigeon-holes for every conceivable idea or impression. We
then begin to make inferences and deductions regarding these ideas or
impressions, working from the known to the unknown, from particulars to
generalities, or from generalities to particulars, as the case may be.

It is this faculty or power of thought--this use of the intellect, that
has brought man to his present high position in the world of living
things. In his early days, man was a much weaker animal than those with
whom he was brought into contact. The tigers, lions, bears, mammoths,
and other ferocious beasts