Review: The Pelman System for the Training of Mind, Memory and Personality
| Published date | 01 April 1940 |
| Date | 01 April 1940 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4001300218 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS
YfHE
PELMAN
SYSTEM
FOR
THE
TRAINING
OF
MIND,
MEMORY
AND
PERSONALITY.
THISsystem has been so much advertised
that
one has come to look upon it
much as one looks upon Player's Navy Cut, Pears' Soap and Beecham's
Pills-s-commodities established in the public favour which go on selling of
their own accord so long as they are continually brought to the notice of the
public.
If
ever we gave a thought to the advertisements which so frequently
caught the eye it was:
"Probably
there's something in
it;
we are a nation of
shopkeepers, and all the advertising in the world won't sell a dud iYOU can't
fool all the people all the time," and so on. But a course of mind training does
not appeal to everyone-eertainly it did not appeal to
us-so,
like most of
our fellow men, we refrained
from"
buying one."
It
was therefore with considerable interest that we found on our desk,
one morning recently, a parcel containing the fifteen booklets comprising the
Pelman course, together with a letter from the Pelman Institute inviting us
to study their system of mind training and to criticise it in THE
POLICE
JOURNAL.
Accompanying each booklet was a form that had to be filled in by
the pupil, and these forms attracted our attention on account of the unusual
questions asked in them.
Now, the editor of a magazine has other things to do than devote his
evenings for fifteen days to studying the paraphernalia of a system of mind
training. But the Pelman Institute has asserted that its system is of value to
policemen, so we decided to take up the challenge and see for ourselves
just
how substantial that claim was and whether in actual fact this much-advertised
system was likely to be of any use at all to police officers. We therefore got
down to it, sceptically and not too readily, as being in the nature of a duty to
our readers.
The
first of the booklets attracted us and held our attention for two
reasons: it was written with a minimum of verbiage and it contained a maxi-
mum of common sense. A critical analysis showed that every terse sentence
in it had been drafted with care and with skill, and with due attention to its
place in the argument.
The
result of this careful drafting was that not only
was the booklet exceedingly easy to read
but
that the attention was held
and-
what was
more-kept
at concert pitch. This criticism holds good for all the
fifteen
booklets-one
cannot help reading
them
with interest and attention.
The
first booklet starts off with a little auto-suggestion, in order to
put
the pupil into the right frame of mind, which is conjidence-confidence in
himself and confidence in the
truth
of what he is reading.
Then
come six
simple exercises in memory and observation. When he has done these exer-
cises to his own satisfaction the pupil fills up Form No.
I,
which is partly in
the nature of an analysis of his reactions to the booklet and partly a confession
of his mental shortcomings.
This
form he posts to the examiners at the
Institute, receiving in return guidance and advice.
255
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