On the origins of psychoanalytic psychohistory.

This article examines the origins and early development of psychoanalytically inspired psychohistory from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. It focuses on Erik H. Erikson, Bruce Mazlish, and Robert Jay Lifton and illustrates their contributions to psychoanalytic psychohistory. Erikson, Mazlish, and Lifton were core members of the Wellfleet group, a research project originally funded by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1965 to conceptualize the foundation of psychohistory. The article gives an account of the early history of the Wellfleet group and argues for specific historical reasons to explain why psychoanalytic psychohistory emerged on the East Coast of the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A critique of the Wellfleet group in unpublished correspondence of Erich Fromm and David Riesman is also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physics, Ballistics, and Psychology: A History of the Chronoscope in/as Context, 1845-1890.

In Wilhelm Wundt's (1832-1920) Leipzig laboratory and at numerous other research sites, the chronoscope was used to conduct reaction time experiments. The author argues that the history of the chronoscope is the history not of an instrument but of an experimental setup. This setup was initially devised by the English physicist and instrument maker Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875) in the early 1840s. Shortly thereafter, it was improved by the German clockmaker and mechanic Matth?us Hipp (1813-1893). In the 1850s, the chronoscope was introduced to ballistic research. In the early 1860s, Neuchatel astronomer Adolphe Hirsch (1830-1901) applied it to the problem of physiological time. The extensions and variations of chronoscope use within the contexts of ballistics, physiology, and psychology presented special challenges. These challenges were met with specific attempts to reduce the errors in chronoscopic experiments on shooting stands and in the psychological laboratory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The supervisory experience: An object relations perspective.

Provides a theoretical framework based on D. W. Winnicott's (1965, 1971) theory of object relations for understanding aspects of the supervisory process. Focus is on the early caregiving relationship as a metaphor in delineating important aspects of the therapeutic experience. A case illustration (a male rape victim in his early 30s with a history of nonpsychotic depression), which demonstrates supervision of a student in psychotherapy training, is interpreted in light of parallel caregiving processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paul T. Mountjoy (1924–2001).

Presents an obituary for Paul T. Mountjoy, a practitioner and advocate in the study of the history of psychology. The author begins by providing details on his career and accomplishments. Mountjoy uncovered early, informal uses of behavior technology, vigorously promoted Kantor’s interbehavioral psychology, and participated in the development of Western Michigan University’s (WMU’s) behavioral graduate program. Mountjoy's personal life and educational background are also described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rediscovering the history of psychology: Interview with Kurt Danziger.

Kurt Danziger is a senior scholar whose innovative contributions to the history of psychology have received widespread international recognition. This wide-ranging interview covers every aspect of Danziger's work since the 1970s, including his early work on Wundt, his work on psychological methods that culminated in the book Constructing the Subject (1990), and his more recent work on psychological objects in Naming the Mind (1997). It also includes his thoughts on history of psychology in general and the related subject of historical psychology. The interviewer is a former student of Danziger and coeditor of a recent book on Danziger's work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Giving children security: Mamie Phipps Clark and the racialization of child psychology.

During the 1930s and 1940s, social psychologists became increasingly well-known among progressives battling race prejudice. By the early 1950s, African American psychologist Kenneth Bancroft Clark had become deeply involved with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's battle against segregated education in the South. By this time, his wife, who is less well-known in the annals of history, was developing her own reputation as the guiding spirit behind Harlem's Northside Center for Child Development. Her work at the center helped define an increasing interest in the psychology of children of color. This article examines the individual and social contexts of Mamie Phipps Clark's life and argues for greater attention to the dynamics of race and gender in the history of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Women in child development: Themes from the SRCD Oral History Project.

Research in child development has emerged as a major intellectual discipline and a topic of great interest and importance to society. The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) has been the leading scholarly society concerned with the advancement of this research. As part of its focus on a history of the field, the SRCD has undertaken an oral history project in which prominent members are interviewed. Of the 102 completed interviews, 47 are women's accounts, which document important contributions women have made to child development. The experiences reported by individual participants reflect themes in the general history of women in psychology and child development during the early and mid-1900s. Women encountered obstacles to their efforts, even as they were supported by others and struggled to achieve prominence amid the sometimes ambiguous or conflicting circumstances that characterized women's entry into child development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalysis and school psychology.

Explores the history of the interface between psychoanalysis and education. What started out as a cordial relationship early in the history of psychoanalysis turned sour as each field became more entrenched in its own function. Whereas school psychologists interpreted children's difficulties from a cognitive point of view, psychoanalysts interpreted from an affective point of view. By the late 1980s some change began to occur. School psychologists have begun to broaden their strictly cognitive point of view, and psychoanalysts have turned their attention to education. The author elaborates on this rapprochement. The case of a 36-yr-old woman for whom schooling issues had been important conflicts in her life is presented as an example of how the understanding of educational processes can enrich the psychoanalyst's understanding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

“The disadvantaged psychological scene”: Educational experiences of women in early Canadian psychology.

This article discusses three distinct patterns that characterise the educational experiences of prominent women psychologists who obtained their PhDs in Canada prior to the 1950s. First, these women obtained their PhDs in psychology in Central Canadian universities versus universities in Western or Eastern Canada. Second, these women made a later entrance into the field of psychology compared with the early prominent women psychologists in the United States. Finally, most of the prominent women in early Canadian psychology did not encounter barriers to attaining their PhDs. This article provides a necessary first step toward constructing a more complete history of women in early Canadian psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: William Kessen (1925–1999).

Memorializes William Kessen, a psychologist who pursued at least three distinct careers in psychology, all of them pathbreaking. Moving from a more empirical approach which he espoused before the cognitive revolution, Kessen abandoned the study of rats for the study of children—first probing their earliest sensory and perceptual development, and later also their changing place in culture and history. From the 1950s to the 1970s, historical and philosophical publications appeared periodically in his burgeoning bibliography, including, from his positivistic era, the treatise The Language of Psychology (with G. Mandler, 1959). In 1965 Kessen published The Child, a documentary history of childhood that laid the groundwork for much of his later historical writings. In The Child he selected and commented on primary works representing many medical, religious, philosophical, psychological, and pedagogical roots of contemporary developmental psychology. Childhood in China (1975) captured Kessen's observations while leading a delegation from the US State Department to study early education in China. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early childhood trauma and disorders of extreme stress as predictors of treatment outcome with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder

History of early childhood trauma was prevalent and highly correlated with Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS) in a sample of veterans in inpatient treatment for chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). DESNOS predicted reliable change on a variety of measures of psychiatric symptomatology (including PTSD) and psychosocial functioning independently of the effects of PTSD diagnosis and early childhood trauma history. DESNOS also predicted treatment outcome on PTSD and quality of life measures after controlling for the effects of ethnicity, war zone trauma exposure severity, initial level of symptomatic severity or quality of life, Axis I (PTSD and major depression) and Axis II (personality disorder) diagnostic status, and early childhood trauma history. Early childhood trauma was not predictive of outcome. DESNOS appears to play an important role in assessment and treatment planning for psychotherapeutic rehabilitation of chronic PTSD.     

History of psychology.

If we accept philosophy as the search for knowledge about ourselves and the world around us by reasoning and we accept psychology as the use of science in the search for understanding the mind and behavior, we can get along without philosophy in our history courses very well. We can begin the history of psychology with the emergence of the life sciences in the early 1800s with passing kudos to the general emergence of science via Gallileo, Newton and Bacon. We can sanitize Fechner, Wundt, James and Dewey; ennoble Pavlov, Watson and Skinner; plunge into learning and psychobiology (while sanctifying logical positivism); and end amidst computers and cognition. And remain unscathed and untouched by human (and humane) reasoning and philosophy. Overall, from the perspective of a historian type, I am less and less certain about the present or the future without the sifting wisdom of history. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

War neurosis: A cultural historical and theoretical inquiry.

This article blends cultural history and theoretical psychology in a discussion of new treatment methods for psychiatric casualties that emerged early in World War II. It draws on philosophical hermeneutics and Hacking's historical ontology to clarify how our interpretation of this history inevitably reflects current struggles making sense of PTSD while efforts to understand this history can enrich present-day reflections about war neurosis and the social good. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Progressive subretinal fibrosis and blindness in patients with multifocal granulomatous chorioretinitis

Since women with a first-degree relative with breast cancer are at increased risk for breast cancer, it is of special importance that they adhere to early detection programs. In this study, women with (389) and without (3295) a family history of breast cancer were compared with respect to risk perception, breast cancer anxiety, and early detection behavior. Special attention was paid to the role of knowing that family history is a breast cancer risk factor. It was found that 46% of "family history positives" did not know that their risk was increased by their family history. Still, family history positives had increased risk perception; our results suggest that this was partly caused by their knowing they belonged to a risk group and partly by their having experienced the disease at close range. Although family history positives had higher risk perceptions, no differences in early detection behavior were found. This could not be attributed to high anxiety levels. Implications for health education are discussed.     

Psychologists in service to science: The American Psychological Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) celebrates its 150th anniversary in 1998. The American Psychological Association and the AAAS have been linked institutionally since the early part of this century, and 3 psychologists in particular have been prominent figures in the AAAS at critical times in its history. James McKeen Cattell revived the journal Science, orchestrated its link to the AAAS, and helped strengthen the AAAS's ties to its affiliated organizations; Dael Wolfle was instrumental in transforming the AAAS into a professional organization with a variety of public programs; and William Bevan helped the AAAS to weather the turbulent years of the early 1970s, stressing the importance of scientists' responsibility to society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Herbicide (Roundup) pneumonitis

A case of acute intoxication presented as toxic pneumonitis after exposure to Roundup (glyphosate) (Solaris Group, Monsanto; San Ramon, CA) herbicide in an agriculture worker. The correct etiologic factor causing this specific clinical picture was identified only 2 weeks later, after a thorough occupational history was taken and meticulous delineation of the working conditions and exposures of the involved worker were made. As a rule, occupational related diseases are not readily elucidated by nonoccupational physicians. However, most acute intoxication events are first encountered by such physicians. In these situations, rapid and comprehensive evaluation is necessary in order to clearly identify the causative agent(s) and to initiate the appropriate treatment. Consulting occupational physicians at this early stage may facilitate early and accurate diagnosis.     

Mommy nearest: Revisiting the idea of infantile symbiosis and its implications for females.

Infantile symbiosis has a lengthy history. The concept, initiated by Freud and then taken up by Anna Freud and subsequent analysts, has continued to be theorized. It has been seen as especially relevant in the developmental history of females. This article, while acknowledging the importance of symbiosis as a construct in mental life, nonetheless challenges the infantile symbiosis concept and offers contrasting data. An alternative view is presented for early and ongoing experiences of symbiosis. Brief historical contributions from early feminists are offered as shaping and impacting psychoanalytic thought. Psychoanalytic theory, on the other hand, utilized and fostered the notion of an early symbiotic tie thereby configuring women's understanding of their needs and desires. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

DNA vaccines: application to tuberculosis

Since the first observations in the early 1990s, the scientific literature on DNA vaccines has been growing exponentially. This article reviews the history and general principle, summarizes current knowledge on immune mechanisms, discusses safety considerations and highlights possible advantages of this technique as compared to the classic vaccines. Special emphasis is placed on the potential of DNA vaccines with respect to tuberculosis.     

Bringing history to life: Simulating landmark experiments in psychology.

The course in history of psychology can be challenging for students, many of whom enter it with little background in history and faced with unfamiliar names and concepts. The sheer volume of material can encourage passive memorization unless efforts are made to increase student involvement. As part of a trend toward experiential history, historians of science have begun to supplement their lectures with demonstrations of classic physics experiments as a way to bring the history of science to life. Here, the authors report on computer simulations of five landmark experiments from early experimental psychology in the areas of reaction time, span of attention, and apparent motion. The simulations are designed not only to permit hands-on replication of historically important results but also to reproduce the experimental procedures closely enough that students can gain a feel for the nature of early research and the psychological processes being studied. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

History of the Division of Consulting Psychology: 1972–1992.

Extends an earlier history of the Division of Consulting Psychology (CP [Division 13]) completed by W. K. Rigby (see record 1993-07900-001) with a focus on the events of 1972–1992. The goals of the Division, restated in its by-laws in the early to mid 1970s, are to (1) encourage high standards of CP, (2) promote scientific research on psychological problems, especially in the area of CP, (3) facilitate professional fellowship, and (4) support the American Psychological Association in the advance of psychology. The Division emphasizes education, research, and training roles and promotes professional networking. The need for revitalization and change in membership profiles are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)