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The article discusses the emergence of psychotherapy as a historical subject in its own right. It highlights the efforts of historians to study psychotherapy as a distinct discipline and explores the challenges and complexities involved in defining and understanding psychotherapy. The article reviews a two-volume critical history of psychotherapy by Renato Foschi and Marco Innamorati, which aims to provide a comprehensive and nuanced account of the development of psychotherapeutic practices. The authors employ primary sources to tell the stories of various psychotherapists and their systems, while also incorporating secondary sources to frame their narratives. The article acknowledges the dense and unwieldy nature of the subject matter and suggests that the volumes could have benefited from better organization and signposting. Overall, the article recognizes the importance and value of Foschi and Innamorati's work in establishing a programmatic basis for the study of the history of psychotherapy. [Extracted from the article]

The given document provides updates and announcements from various organizations and individuals in the field of behavioral and social sciences. It includes information about new articles, books, podcasts, and awards. Notable highlights include John Benjafield's article on eminent psychologists, Paul Croce's chapter on James and medicine, and Mike Jay winning the Cheiron Book Prize for his book "Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind." The document also mentions conferences, lectures, and changes in leadership within the European Society for the History of the Human Sciences. [Extracted from the article]

The development of the concept of dreams in interwar Polish psychiatry and psychology was influenced by Western European concepts as well as by sociocultural factors of the newly independent state. Few Polish psychiatrists addressed the subject of dreams. They were influenced mainly by Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic concept of dreams, but also by Alferd Adler's, Carl Gustav Jung's, and Wilhelm Stekel's ideas. Nevertheless, they approached psychoanalysis critically. The most comprehensive concept of dreams in Polish psychiatry was oneiroanalysis by Tadeusz Bilikiewicz. Oneironalysis was a method of dream analysis based on psychoanalysis but it rejected the psychoanalytic method of free associations and challenged psychoanalytic approaches to the interpretation of dream symbols. Polish psychologists were even less interested in dreams than psychiatrists. Problems with dreams, the most elaborate psychological work by Stefan Szuman consisted of an outline of epistemological problems with general theories of dreams and a harsh critique of psychoanalysis. The neglect of the subject of dreams in Polish psychiatric society can be seen as connected with the social and professional reception of psychoanalysis in Poland. Psychoanalysis was met with opposition from conservative scholars and publicists presenting nationalistic and anti‐Semitic attitudes. It was also criticized by the biologically oriented majority of psychiatrists of the Polish Psychiatric Association. In the case of psychology, the most influential Polish psychological school, Lvov‐Warsaw School, promoted Brentanian intentionalism, introspection, and psychology of consciousness, therefore, leading to psychologists' reluctance to explore unconscious states like dreams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a detailed analysis of the intellectual research project of Wilhelm Mann, one of the pioneers of experimental and educational psychology in Chile. Mann's work has been the object of so little analysis that his intellectual influences and networks are not clearly known. We analyzed 338 intratext citations from 22 works by Wilhelm Mann published during the period 1904–1915. As a result, we obtained a mapping of his cooperation networks and used a quantitative approach to study the authors who most influenced his career, among whom were William Stern, Herbert Spencer, Wilhelm Wundt, Alfred Binet, and Ernst Meumann. Mann was closely connected to the international and contemporary advances and discussions of his time, despite the lack of infrastructure and difficulties in communication. Mann was the first psychologist to develop a long‐term project in Chile that aimed to measure the individualities of Chilean students and their intellectual development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a volume titled "Ideological and political bias in psychology: Nature, scope, and solutions." The volume is edited by Scott Lilienfeld, who unfortunately passed away in 2020. The remaining editors are known for their contributions on political bias in psychology. The volume includes contributions from various academics and covers topics such as race, sex, and gender. It argues that there is a perceived unfairness towards conservatives in psychology and calls for more conservative representation in the field. The article recommends the volume as a useful resource for historians of psychology, highlighting its comprehensive coverage of recent conservatism in psychology and insightful chapters. It also raises larger issues, such as the history of political bias in psychology and the politicization of the field. The article concludes by suggesting a re-examination of the concept of equality in psychology and psychology's role in a democratic society. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the question of whether the concept of the soul has a place in modern psychology. The author examines the historical, metaphysical, and theological significance of the soul in Western culture and how psychologists in the 19th and 20th centuries grappled with incorporating it into their discipline. The book discusses the rejection of the soul by mainstream psychology, the development of secular and scientific concepts to replace it, and the arguments made by lesser-known thinkers who challenged psychology for discarding the soul. Despite the rejection of the soul by modern psychology, the author argues that it continues to be a topic of dialogue and cannot be dismissed as a psychological category. [Extracted from the article]

"The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Images Research into Animal Life" by Benjamín Schultz‐Figueroa is a cross-disciplinary book that explores the films, politics, and policy of American psychologists Robert Mearns Yerkes, Neal Elgar Miller, and B. F. Skinner. The author provides QR codes to view select "celluloid specimens" online, which are scientific film ephemera related to behaviorist history. Schultz‐Figueroa examines the connection between these films and broader media infrastructures, as well as their role in upholding gendered and white supremacist social norms. The book employs an infrastructural model to analyze the films and their historical and cultural frameworks. [Extracted from the article]

Eventually, in addition to those studies suggesting that therapeutic culture can be as much part of an individualistic and depoliticizing rationale as it can be a source of political mobilization that reconnects individuals, a series of recent works carried out in different geographical areas such as Finland (Salmenniemi, [39]), China (Yang, [48]) or the Caribbean (Nehring & Kerrigan, [32]) have contributed to undermining the idea of a single and univalent therapeutic culture. Taken together, these works point to a multiplicity of therapeutic cultures marked by regional, national, and local particularities in terms of the psychologies involved, the modalities of dissemination, the privileged targets of intervention, and the resulting effects.[1] This multiplicity complicates sociological accounts of the rise of a ubiquitous therapeutic culture in contemporary Western societies. Since the 1960s, social theorists have noted the incorporation of psychological interpretation and intervention frameworks into major social realms of North American and European societies. Historicizing "therapeutic culture" - Towards a material and polycentric history of psychologization. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines a little‐known chapter both in the history of socialist labor relations and the history of psychology: Social Psychological Training (SPT) for industrial leaders in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Based on previously untapped archival sources, it uncovers the transnational genesis of SPT and its intricate relationships with Western "therapeutic culture" of the 1970s. Governmental perspectives are addressed, as well as the level of individual appropriation of SPT and possible unintended side effects of techniques that were drawn from the social psychological and therapeutical fields. This case study helps to explore the functions of psychological expertise in authoritarian political contexts, as well as the polyvalence of group methods of change, the effects of which could turn out repressive as well as liberating on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The history of SPT solicits a polycentric view on therapeutic culture, capturing its diverse manifestations and interconnections between different societies and political economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fall of Communism is now universally agreed to be what the philosopher Hegel called a world historical event—one that few predicted but nearly everyone saw as inevitable after it happened. In the aftermath many lives—and worldviews—changed, not only, but also in the human sciences. These remarks attempt to address in a preliminary way both the impact of the fall of Communism on psychology in former East Germany (including changes in personnel and approach) and the ways in which these sciences were employed as resources for reflection on the Communist past as well as the transition to new social and political regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of Romanian psychology followed several stages, similarly to other countries in Eastern Europe, yet with its own particularities. The first psychology institutes were introduced by former students of Wilhelm Wundt, and the field saw a rapid development, with distinguished scholars making relevant scientific contributions. However, after the communist regime was enforced, psychology stagnated somewhat due to ideological, financial, and political reasons, and, in 1977, it was even removed from academia. After 1989, psychology revived in academia and research, and as a profession as well. This article summarizes the evolution of Romanian psychology through these stages, focusing on its postcommunist revival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines the significant organizational and scientific changes that occurred in Bulgarian psychology after the fall of the totalitarian regime in 1989. These included the establishment of new university and research centers in psychology, the abolition of ideological censorship in psychology publications, free choice of research methodology and methods, free communication, and exchange of ideas with foreign psychologists, and the development of psychoanalytic practice and psychological services. The liberalization of the social conditions for the development of science, in general, made psychology a much sought‐after science and practice. In this time of social transition, its authority grew significantly due to the fact that its calling was to study and solve, above all, the problems of the people, especially as they were faced with new social conditions. In the last 30 years, psychological science in Bulgaria has been significantly humanized. These changes allowed scientists to propose new methodological approaches not only to the study of the psyche, but also to the study of both Bulgarian and foreign history of psychology. Although in the last 30 years not all measures taken in the institutional management of the psychological science were positive, Bulgarian psychology was given a new opportunity to join the international scientific community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are unconscious inferences in psychology? This article investigates their journey from the early philosophical psychology of Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) to the experimental psychology of the American pragmatist Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914). Peirce's reception of Wundt's early works situates him in an international web of 19th‐century experimental psychologists and its reconstruction opens new perspectives on the relation between philosophy, psychology, and epistemology. Moreover, this reception testifies to a heretofore overlooked strand of influence of Wundt on North American experimental psychology. The notion of unconscious inferences, of which Hermann von Helmholtz is usually considered the chief exponent, becomes the backbone of Peirce's theory of perception mostly because of the affinity between Wundt's early philosophy of mind and Peirce's logic‐mediated approach to psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To clarify the historical origins of theoretical and methodological problems faced by Argentinian psychology today, this article describes the philosophical and epistemological ideas held by psychoanalytically oriented professors and transmitted to undergraduate students during the institutionalization and professionalization of psychology at Argentinian universities between 1962 and 1983. Drawing from primary sources such as official publications and undergraduate syllabi, we analyze the systematic and normative perspective of those psychoanalysts on issues such as the nature of science, the scientific method, and the legitimate ways to do research. We argue that the philosophical approach they defended within psychology programs was markedly relativistic, solipsistic, and often recursive, leading them to conceive of psychoanalysis both as a meta‐theory and a self‐sufficient science. The fact that this "theory‐laden" philosophy of science was gradually adopted by psychology graduates (or undergraduates) throughout their education could thus help explain several epistemological beliefs currently held by a majority of Argentinian psychologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document provides various updates and announcements related to the field of behavioral and social sciences. It includes information about new articles, books, conferences, and awards. Some of the topics covered include the relationships among eminent psychologists, the end of Cold War psychology, prehistoric national origins in Europe, a festchrift for William McKinley Runyan, and upcoming conferences and lectures. The document also highlights the work of Dr. Andrew S. Winston on the history of racism and antisemitism in psychology. Additionally, it announces the winner of the Early Career Award from the European Society for the History of the Human Sciences. [Extracted from the article]

In this interview with historian of psychology Saulo de Freitas Araujo, we discuss the aims, challenges, and functions of a new book series in which classic psychological works are translated into Portuguese. The interview highlights the importance of the accessibility of primary source documents to psychology education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of linear perspective in the early 15th century and the discovery of the retinal image two centuries later became cornerstones of an approach to visual perception theory that eventually took shape primarily in the hands of British Empiricist philosophers. Even as this approach has dominated perceptual theory to the present day, the perspectivist influence on pictorial representation within the visual arts steadily diminished over time. Its decisive break with perspectivism came in the early 20th century with transformative 19th century changes in the sciences and technology. Collectively, these events elevated process and change over fixity and stasis, and ultimately led to the collapse of the distinction between space and time in the physical sciences. Even so, approaches to visual perception in psychology remained remarkably untouched by these occurrences until the 1960s when the experimental psychologist James Gibson drew upon them to challenge the legacy of perspectivism and the visual image and their effect on perceptual theory. His ecological approach to perception recognizes animacy as the essential functional property of living things, and in doing so, conceptualizes seeing as a perception–action process. From this stance, Gibson like the visual artists earlier in the century rejected the assumption that visual perception is best characterized as the capturing of static images. Jointly and yet independently, both efforts loosened the grip that perspectivism and the visual image have maintained on the arts and on visual perception theory, respectively, bringing 19th century scientific advances into 20th century psychological thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

May had become a public intellectual (p. 217), and throughout the turmoil of the 1960s, May's sense of having a "heroic calling remained intact" (p. 240). Rollo May (1909-1994) fused together midwestern liberal Protestantism, psychoanalysis, existential philosophy, and Paul Tillich's theology, in a synthetic and accessible writing style. In the mid-1930s, May read Otto Rank, "whom he found more compelling than either Freud or Adler, as Rank emphasized, "a therapy that sought to liberate personal spiritual and creative potentialities" (p. 81). [Extracted from the article]

How should historians employ psychological insight when seeking to understand and analyze their historical subjects? That is the essential question explored in this methodological reflection on the relationship between psychology and biography. To answer it, this paper offers a historical, historiographical, and theoretical analysis of life writing in the history of psychology. It touches down in the genres of autobiography, psychobiography, and cultural history to assess how other historians and psychologists have answered this question. And it offers a more detailed analysis of one particularly useful text, Kerry Buckley's (1989) Mechanical Man, to illuminate specific ways in which historians can simultaneously employ, historicize, and critically analyze the theories of the psychologists they study. Although ostensibly about writing biographies of eminent psychologists, this article speaks to a methodological issue facing any historian contemplating the role psychological theories should play in their historical narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides updates and news related to the field of history of the behavioral sciences. It mentions the forthcoming book by Nima Bassiri, an assistant professor at Duke University, titled "Madness and Enterprise: Psychiatry, Economic Reason, and the Emergence of Pathological Value." It also highlights the achievements of Hans Pols, a historian of science and medicine in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, who received the 2023 Award in the History and Philosophy of Science from the Royal Society of New South Wales. Additionally, it announces upcoming conferences organized by Cheiron and the European Society for the History of the Human Sciences. The conferences will focus on various aspects of the history of human, behavioral, and social sciences. [Extracted from the article]

In recent decades, various studies have challenged the traditional view that John Broadus Watson's Behaviorist Manifesto prompted a psychological revolution. However, methodological hindrances underlie all these attempts to evaluate the impact of Watson's study, such as the absence of comparative parameters. This article remedies this problem by conducting a comparative citation analysis involving Watson and eight other representative psychologists of the time: J. R. Angell, H. Carr, J. M. Cattell, J. Dewey, G. S. Hall, W. James, E. L. Thorndike, and E. B. Titchener. Eight important American journals were scrutinized for the period between 1903 and 1923, a decade before and a decade after the publication of Watson's Manifesto. The results suggest that even if Watson's study cannot be taken as revolutionary, it had an impact between 1914 and 1923 that was close to Dewey's, Titchener's, and Thorndike's and higher than Angell's, Carr's, Cattell's, and Hall's, although distant from James's. Finally, some methodological implications of this study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cover caption: An écorché image of tranquility by George Stubbs from 1800. Cover Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the highlights of the 50th annual meeting of Cheiron: The International Society for the History of the Behavioral and Social Sciences held from June 21-24, 2018, held at the University of Akron in Ohio. Topics covered include the problems in the use of inferential statistics in psychology publications, cases of unethical conduct in psychological research and therapy, and a demonstration on ways to guide undergraduates into primary sources in history of psychology.

In the wake of the critical reorientation in the historiography of psychology, a number of scholars challenged the one‐sided structuralist and positivist interpretation of Wilhelm Wundt's work. This paper aims at contributing to these recent efforts, by providing an analysis of the way in which Wundt's apperceptionism conditioned his account of the relation between thought and speech, and by extrapolation, of disorganized thought and speech. While Wundt's pivotal role in the development of the psychology of language is relatively well‐known, discussions on this part of his theorizing tend to focus exclusively on his gestural or motor account of language. This obliterates the complex theoretical background of Wundt's theory of language and speech, as well as its systematic place within his psychological system. Highlighting this neglected dimension of Wundt's theorizing, however, could open up a new horizon of pressing research questions in the historiography of psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1884 Samuel Butler published a collection of essays entitled Remarks on George Romanes' Mental Evolution, where he attempted to show how Romanes' idea of mental evolution presented similarities with his theory of unconscious memory. By looking at Romanes' work through Butler's writing, this article will reevaluate some aspects of their works regarding the complex debate about memory, heredity, and instinct. This paper will explore the main differences and similarities between Romanes' science and Butler's writing on science both in terms of their ideas and contents. It will then look into their different professional relationships with Darwin and how this determined the professional and public reception of their theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of Scarborough and Furumoto's classic work Untold Lives, and to honor the intellectual legacy of Elizabeth Scarborough (1935-2015), we introduce this special issue devoted to the histories of women, gender, and feminism in psychology. We provide a short biographical sketch of Elizabeth, highlighting her own marriage-career dilemma, then contextualize the publication of Untold Lives within the historiography on women in psychology at that time. We conclude by discussing intersectionality as an analytic framework for the history of psychology as a way to extend and enrich this historiography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between American psychology and gender ideologies in the two decades following World War II was complicated and multivalent. Although many psy-professionals publicly contributed to the cult of domesticity that valorized women's roles as wives and mothers, other psychologists, many of them women, reimagined traditional sex roles to accommodate and deproblematize the increasing numbers of women at work, especially working mothers. In this article, I excavate and highlight the contributions of several of these psychologists, embedding their efforts in the context of the paradoxical expectations for women that colored the postwar and increasingly Cold War landscape of the United States. By arguing that conflict was inherent in the lives of both women and men, that role conflict (when it did occur) was a cultural, not intrapsychic, phenomenon, and that maternal employment itself was not damaging to children or families, these psychologists connected the work of their first-wave, first-generation forebears with that of the explicitly feminist psychologists who would come after them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As queer history is often hidden, historians must look for 'signs' that hint at queer lives and experiences. When psychologists use projective tests, the search for queer signs has historically been more literal, and this was especially true in the homophobic practices of Psychology in the mid-twentieth century. In this paper, I respond to Elizabeth Scarborough's call for more analytic history about the lesser known women in Psychology's history. By focusing on British projective research conducted by lesbian psychologist June Hopkins, I shift perspective and consider, not those who were tested (which has been historically more common), but those who did the testing, and position them as potential queer subjects. After briefly outlining why the projective test movement is ripe for such analysis and the kinds of queer signs that were identified using the Rorschach ink blot test in the mid-twentieth century, I then present June Hopkins' (1969, 1970) research on the 'lesbian personality.' This work forms a framework upon which I then consider the lives of Margaret Lowenfeld, Ann Kaldegg, and Effie Lillian Hutton, all of whom were involved in the British projective test movement a generation prior to Hopkins. By adopting Hopkins' research to frame their lives, I present the possibility of this ambiguous history being distinctly queer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A table of contents for the issue is presented.

This article explores the work of psychologist Gordon Gallup, Jr., during the 1960s and 1970s on mirror self-recognition in animals. It shows how Gallup tried to integrate the mental 'self-concept' into an otherwise strictly behaviorist paradigm. By making an argument from material culture, the article demonstrates how Gallup's adoption of a self-concept is best understood as a product of his sustained analysis of the workings of the mirror as a piece of experimental apparatus. In certain situations, the stimulus properties of the mirror changed dramatically, a shift that Gallup thought legitimated the positing of a self-concept. For this reason, Gallup supposed he could use a mirror to provide an operationalized concept of the self, that is, produce a definition that was compatible with behaviorist experimental norms. The article argues that behaviorism was more supple and productive than is often assumed, and contained resources that could align it with the 'cognitive revolution' to which it is most often opposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay provides a fresh account of the break between Oswald Külpe and his master Wilhelm Wundt. Kurt Danziger's reconstruction of the 'repudiation' of Wundt, which has become the canon for this significant episode of history of psychology, focused on the supposed influence of Ernst Mach on this set of events, overshadowing the other exponent of Empiriocriticism: Richard Avenarius. Analyzing archival documents and examining anew the primary sources, the paper shows that Avenarius was himself a member of Wundt's circle, and that his 'repudiation' of the master paved the way for Külpe. The essay points out the original anti-Wundtian aspects of Avenarius' notion of psychology, thus showing how they were then adopted by Külpe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cover caption: I. M. Sechenov with preparation for study of reflexes in the Medical‐Surgical Academy, St. Petersburg, by unknown photographer, from 1860s. From M. N. Shaternikov, "The Life of I. M. Sechenov", in I. Sechenov, Selected Works, prepared for the XVth International Physiological Congress, Leningrad and Moscow, 1935. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to provide an overview of the historiography of psychology textbooks. In the overview, I identify and describe in detail two strands of writing histories of introductory textbooks of psychology and juxtapose them to provide an integrated historiography of textbooks in psychology. One strand is developed by teachers of psychology-first as a general approach for investigating textbooks in a pedagogical setting, and then later upgraded into a full history of psychology textbooks in America. The other strand follows a more familiar perspective of historians of science and historians of psychology who build on various post-Kuhnian and post-Foucauldian perspectives on textbooks. I make an argument for integrating these two views for a more comprehensive historiography of textbooks in psychology, recasting textbooks as objects of research and sources that are interesting sui generis for historians of psychology in their investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of instrument firms in the development of psychology, and science in general, should not be underestimated since it would not have been possible for various leading psychologists at the turn of the twentieth century to conduct certain experiments without the assistance of instrument makers, as is often the case today. To illustrate the historical perspective introduced here, the example of Alfred Binet is taken, as he is an interesting case of a psychologist working in close collaboration with various French instrument designers of the time. The objective of this article is twofold: (1) to show the considerable activity carried out by early psychologists to finalize new laboratory instruments in order to develop their research projects; (2) to reassess the work of a major figure in French psychology through his activity as a designer of precision instruments. The development of these new instruments would certainly have been difficult without the presence in Paris of numerous precision instrument manufacturers such as Charles Verdin, Otto Lund, Henri Collin, and Lucien Korsten, on whom Binet successively called in order to develop his projects in the field of experimental psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A table of contents for the issue is presented.

A biography of Franz Samelson, a historian of psychology, is presented. It discusses his birth and childhood years in Germany, his educational background, the event that attracted him to the possibilities of social research, Franz's dissertation in 1956, his involvement with social justice movements, and his impact on historians and on his students.

The author examines the conundrum in the lifeworks of historian of psychology Franz Samelson. It discusses Samelson's questions in response to presentations at the first Cheiron meeting, a comparison between Samelson's works and those from the father of modern history of science George Sarton, his critical analyses of preconceptions and four percepts that can be found to inhabit Franz's work.

This article presents the table of contents and the aims and scope of the journal, as well as information on subscription to the journal.

The author responds to Peter L. Rudnytsky's review of her book "Freud in His Time and Ours." She thanks Rudnytsky for pointing out certain errata in her biography of psychologist Sigmund Freud. She argues that the reviewer does not appear to have a convincing grasp of Freudian historiography. She also defends herself after the reviewer labeled her a hagiographer.

To date, historians of psychology have largely ignored the role of academic publishing and the editorial policies of the late nineteenth century. This paper analyzes the role played by academic publishing in the history of psychology in the specific case of France, a country that provides a very interesting and unique model. Up until the middle of the 1890s, there was no collection specifically dedicated to psychology. Alfred Binet was the first to found, in 1897, a collection of works specifically dedicated to scientific psychology. He chose to work with Reinwald-Schleicher. However, Binet was soon confronted with (1) competition from other French publishing houses, and (2) Schleicher's management and editorial problems that were to sound the death knell for Binet's emerging editorial ambitions. The intention of this paper is to encourage the efforts of the pioneers of modern psychology to have their work published and disseminated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the 1962 splitting of the South African Psychological Association (SAPA), when disaffected Afrikaner psychologists broke away to form the whites-only Psychological Institute of the Republic of South Africa (PIRSA). It presents an analysis of the rhetorical justification for forming a new professional association on principles at odds with prevailing international norms, demonstrating how the episode involved more than the question of admitting black psychologists to the association. In particular, the paper argues that the SAPA-PIRSA separation resulted from an Afrikaner nationalist reading of the goals of psychological science. PIRSA, that is, insisted on promoting a discipline committed to the ethnic-national vision of the apartheid state. For its part, SAPA's racial integration was of a nominal order only, ostensibly to protect itself from international sanction. The paper concludes that, in a racist society, it is difficult to produce anything other than a racist psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In so far as researchers viewed psychical, occult, and religious phenomena as both objectively verifiable and resistant to extant scientific explanations, their study posed thorny issues for experimental psychologists. Controversies over the study of psychical and occult phenomena at the Fourth Congress of International Psychology (Paris, 1900) and religious phenomena at the Sixth (Geneva, 1909) raise the question of why the latter was accepted as a legitimate object of study, whereas the former was not. Comparison of the Congresses suggests that those interested in the study of religion were willing to forego the quest for objective evidence and focus on experience, whereas those most invested in psychical research were not. The shift in focus did not overcome many of the methodological difficulties. Sub-specialization formalized distinctions between psychical, religious, and pathological phenomena; obscured similarities; and undercut the nascent comparative study of unusual experiences that had emerged at the early Congresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1929, the Lutheran mission at Hermannsburg (Ntaria), central Australia, became an extraordinary investigatory site, attracting an array of leading psychologists wishing to define the 'primitive' mentality of the Arrernte, who became perhaps the most studied people in the British Empire and dominions. This is a story of how scientific knowledge derived from close encounters and fraught entanglements on the borderlands of the settler state. The investigators-Stanley D. Porteus, H. K. Fry, and Géza Róheim-represent the major styles of psychological inquiry in the early-twentieth century, and count among the vanguard of those dismantling rigid racial typologies and fixed hierarchies of human mentality. They wanted to evaluate 'how natives think,' yet inescapably they found themselves reflecting on white mentality too. They came to recognise the primitive as an influential and disturbing motif within the civilised mind-their own minds. These intense interactions in the central deserts show us how Aboriginal thinking could make whites think again about themselves-and forget, for a moment, that many of their research subjects were starving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]