Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/121



Neoplatonists held to the theory of trichotomy. That is, they considered a human being, to be a compound of three elements, mind, soul and body. But the material element was resolved by them into unreality. Dichotomy, or the theory that a person is composed of two parts, mind and body, is the common view of psychologists now, though there are still some who advocate trichotomy.

Though her psychology is Neoplatonic, Mrs. Eddy, judged from one standpoint, belongs to neither of these two classes. To her, mortal man is a compound of mind and matter. But there is really no such existence; mortal man is a delusion. To her, man, that is, immortal or real man, is not a compound of two or more elements but a simple substance. He is mind and nothing more. Body with all the notions, opinions, sensations, etc., that arise from it or are supposed to enter the mind through it, are unreal and do not belong to the real and true man and should not even be considered as having existence. Mrs. Eddy allows to the real man only those mental activities that the Neoplatonists said belonged to the mind in distinction from the soul; they of course discarded from the real man all physical qualities but