Review of The Mystery of Mind

Abstract

Reviews the book, The Mystery of Mind by Leonard T. Troland (1926). Dr. Troland's book represents a departure from traditional conceptions particularly with respect to the able manner in which he has related the accumulating wealth of new material in physics, biochemistry, and biology to the profound changes that are occurring in our conceptions of the nature of human activity. This introduces the controversial topic of physical versus psychical monism, which carries us beyond the limits of this review and of Troland's excellent book. But, that a permanently dualistic system is unacceptable to him is clear from his closing section which carries the title, Idealism. Yet throughout the book the dualistic assumption is so dominant that we must regard his monism as provisional Does not the following quotation warrant our doing so? He says, "However, we cannot hope in the present book to make such a doctrine" (psychical monism) "really clear To do so would be too difficult and if successful would unduly dispel the 'mystery of mind'; which it has been our purpose to set forth rather than to solve" (248). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)