PLANT, JAMES S. Personality and the Cul tural Pattern. Pp. x, 442. New York: The Commonwealth Fund, 1937. $2.50

• Author: Willard Waller
• DOI: 10.1177/000271623819600172
• Published date: 01 March 1938
• Date: 01 March 1938
• Subject Matter: Articles

266
not have conveyed a legitimate meaning.
PLANT, JAMES S. Personality and the Cul-
One
tural Pattern.
may speak of the &dquo;Yellow peril&dquo; and
Pp. x, 442. New York:
&dquo;White
The Commonwealth
race supremacy&dquo; without implying
Fund, 1937. $2.50.
racial superiority.
Personality and the Cultural Pattern is
When one turns to the author’s positive
a book to which it is impossible to do jus-
pronouncements on race, he finds them
tice in a brief review. It fits into none of
confused and confusing. Dr. Barzun en-
our established pigeonholes. Especially in
ters a &dquo;blanket denial that races exist&dquo; (p.
parts, it is a book to be chewed and di-
273; see also pp. 11-~6), thus making fools
gested. It has also some shortcomings, but
of the physical anthropologists, to almost
it will not do to emphasize these too much,
none of whom he makes the slightest ref-
because the strong points of the book are
erence.
so obviously the virtues of its defects.
In the closing pages (especially pp. ~63-
Dr. Plant is a socially sensitive psychia-
~99) Dr. Barzun enters upon what is at
trist who for a number of years has been
times almost trivial &dquo;dust throwing.&dquo; He
dealing with children in a clinic closely in-
seems never to have read any of the litera-
tegrated with the school system of a large
ture on racial immunity (p. ~66). He finds
suburban area. He has developed a
it an evidence of open-mindedness &dquo;to look
method of study which he calls that of the
on all human
beings as substantially alike.&dquo;
casual breakdown. He uses this phrase
No doubt they are; so are all cows &dquo;sub-
&dquo;to describe the individual who is present-
stantially alike&dquo;; but not all cows are Jer-
ing a short and dramatic dislocation of his
seys.
usual relationships with any given social
On the author’s list of &dquo;Objections&dquo; (pp.
institution or social pattern.&dquo; On the
~~’8-~84), those are sound which are lim-
basis of materials so...