Guerard Disapproves Excesses of Modern Psychological Critics

Albert J. Guerard, professor of English, yesterday charged modern critics with an overemphasis of psychology which tends to eliminate life from literature. Guerard discussed "Psychological Aspects of the Novel" before the Social Relations Society.

He cited a critic who attacked Joseph Conrad for wasting time on mundane activities in "The Nigger of the Narcissus." "Those mundane things are life, and when criticism begins to regret life it is time to try to conceive more generously," he said.

Let Jung Do It

Guerard also rejected what he called the "ruthlessly psychoanalytic" novel as being as bad as all didactic novels. Such novelists substitute text-book situations for real creativity, he explained, letting psychological theorists such as Carl Jung think for them.

In elaboration on the novel's relationship to psychology Guerard said that the novel can contribute little to academic psychology. It can, however, throw some light on the common events of life, he continued, if the novelist has an accurate psychology. "The important thing is the story-the pattern of the world-occurring in novel after novel," he said.

This pattern may be conscious or unconscious, Guerard said. "An author's rational intentions are as irrecoverable as his sources," Guerard declared.