27 Psychology, philosophy and self-help in Dewey

Another area in which there seems to be too much choice of numbers is psychology and philosophy, with self-help or self-improvement thrown in. As in the case of natural history, there is  a pretty basic divide between the humanities and the sciences.

To start with, the 100’s have the core topics of Philosophy, parapsychology and occultism, and psychology. These are not exactly happy bed-fellows for a discerning lot. Then we have the 110’s, Metaphysics, the 120’s, Epistemology, causation, humankind, the 130’s  Parapsychology and occultism, then the 140’s Specific philosophical schools and viewpoints. Then come the 150’s Psychology, the 160’s Logic, the 170’s Ethics (Moral philosophy), then the 180’s Ancient, medieval, eastern philosophy. This is where you have the great classical age thinkers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and Epicureans, and one section 181 for Eastern philosophy (yes, in singular!). The last is 190’s for modern western philosophy.

One problem with this arrangement is that philosophy books tend to get split up on the shelves. Apart from the rather odd interpolation of paranormal and fringe pursuits, there is the problem that books on general philosophy, world philosophy, theory of philosophy, or abstract subjects under Metaphysics and Epistemology etc. are bunched in the start, while Logic and Ethics and the entire gamut of ancient philosophies go to the end, with Psychology forming a broad wedge in-between. This is bound to confuse the searcher in any case, leave alone resolving the perplexities of life and living!

A second difficulty was experienced by me, at least, in the treatment of eastern philosophies (181). While there are numbers for philosophies of different places, starting with 181.1 Far East and South Asia, there is a specific list for India 181.4 (as here is for China and Korea 181.11). The six traditional schools are provided their individual numbers from 181.41 onwards; but Buddhist philosophy is at 181.043, Jainist at 181.044. The confusion sometimes comes because philosophy and religion are so closely intertwined, and there are separate numbers for all the main religions in the 200’s. Thus we have this interesting effect that much of Buddhist thought (philosophy) goes off to the religion numbers; while much of Hindu religion may happen to come into philosophy, especially if you think of Vedanta as a religious (or at least a spiritual) rather than a philosophical pursuit. On the other hand, many philosophical works are classed under religion, such as the Upanishads (294.592’18), which may better be studied as philosophy, in fact very similar to the precepts of say the Stoics (188).

A subject head that seems to mirror the last mentioned philosophy is in 158 Applied psychology. It is worth spelling out the note under this heading:

 “Class here application of individual psychology in general; comprehensive works on how to better oneself and how to get along with other people; comprehensive works on psychological and parapsychological or occult techniques for achieving personal well-being, happiness, success.”  

This looks like a tall order; even more specific is 158.1 Personal improvement and analysis:

“Class here works intended to make one a better person (!) or to stave off failure, to solve problems or to adjust to a life that does not meet one’s expectations; works on specific systems and schools of applied psychology written for persons who wish to be improved or analyzed.” 

No mention of 'believe it and you’ll see it', 'awaken the giant', 'you can be great', and so on!

Of course there are only a limited set of original books on psychology itself (think of Freud, Jung, and a few others), but a veritable flood of self-help and improvement books that could claim a place in 158.1. If you wouldn’t like to clutter (I was about to use the word foul!) your ‘serious’ psychology shelves with these other genre of slightly doubtful vintage (if you have a person in the household that has done a college course on psychology, you may have this situation), there is a completely different slot for the latter: this is in the technology 600’s, to be precise under 646 Sewing, clothing, management of personal and family life (it looks like Dewey was of the conviction that 'a stitch in time saves nine'!).  You could put most of the self-improvement works under 646.7 Management of personal and family life, which has 646.76 Social skills, 646.77 Dating and choice of mate, 646.78 Family life (“Class here guides to harmonious family relations”, essential if you have teenagers around!), 646.79 Guides for persons in late adulthood (“Class here guides to retirement”).

On the other hand, if you look at success in a more corporate world, you have 650.1 Personal success in business (“Class here interdisciplinary works on success, formerly 646.7"), which includes 650.11 Time management (also at 640.43 Management of time, in home and family management), 650.12 Financial success, 650.13 Personal improvement and success in business relationships, 650.14 Success in obtaining jobs and promotions, and  a few more; and 658.409 Personal aspects of executive management (“Class here success as an executive”). So do not think there is any dearth of choice, for classifying or for life strategies!

Another useful location for self-help in the sense of physical and mental fitness comes in at 613.7 Physical fitness, which includes not only exercises of different genres, but also techniques (hence in the 600’s!) of yoga and so forth. The spiritual side of yoga, of course, is in religion: at 204.3 Worship, meditation, yoga, or in Hinduism: 294.543 Worship, meditation, yoga, or in philosophy: 181.45 Yoga in Indian philosophy.

So you can imagine that your practical psychology and philosophy books are going to be scattered around. And don’t forget to cover your 'unusual' psychology books in plain paper!