...looks back
Peter Garrard on the uses of retrospective language analysis
Roger Smith argues that the historical story is not dispensable – it is key to being a good scientist
Henry Ford supposedly snapped: ‘History is more or less bunk.’ Ford, I think, meant that if we pay history much attention, it holds us back. Many scientists agree: better to construct knowledge,...
A peculiarly influential and controversial 1920s employment test, from Thomas Edison, by Paul Collins; plus an account of how it felt to resist Milgram.
Dean Keith Simonton examines biographical influences on composition and eminence
Chris Lerwill digs into the archives, 200 years after Darwin’s birth and 150 after the publication of On the Origin of Species.
Barbara Tizard on John Bowlby – the origins of his ideas, their impact and his often underestimated willingness to revise them
John Bowlby (1907–1990) first attained fame – some would say notoriety – in 1951, with the publication of his monograph Maternal Care and Mental Health. In it he presented evidence that maternal...
Is the ‘cognitive revolution’ a myth? Sandy Hobbs thinks the term is inaccurate and unhelpful; Jeremy Trevelyan Burman disagrees
Uta Frith on a couple of colourful characters – Neil O’Connor and Beate Hermelin; and Julie Perks on the Hipp Chronoscope
Everyone knows that London in the Sixties was a cool place to be, but few know that this was true not only for music, art and fashion, but also for psychology. At the Institute of Psychiatry you...
John Waller on how distress and pious fear have led to bizarre outbreaks across the ages.
The year was 1374. In dozens of medieval towns scattered along the valley of the River Rhine hundreds of people were seized by an agonising compulsion to dance. Scarcely pausing to rest or eat,...
Gustav Jahoda on the German philosopher and psychologist Johann Friedrich Herbart, and his view of the mind as a starry sky of Newtonian forces.
Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr revisits the promises of British practical psychology.
One hundred and fifty years ago this month, the grand new bell – a mind-boggling 16 tons in weight – rang out across London from the Great Clock of Westminster for the first time on 31 May...
Peter Lamont with a brief history of extraordinary psychological feats, and their relevance for our concept of psychology and science
Richard Howard on a psychologist who is remembered for educational testing, but whose interests covered the full gamut of individual differences.
Christopher Spencer and Kate Gee take a historical look at the development of the field; and Jon Sutton examines the wilderness of the mind
Herbert A. Friedman on the why and how of an unusual form of propaganda.
Following on from last month’s article, Ann Clarke and Alan Clarke reflect on their five decades of research.
The story of how we ended up working at Manor Hospital begins in early autumn 1950. We were newly married, had our PhDs from the Maudsley Hospital and UCL and were looking forward to a year in...
John Hall revisits the impact of a key text on intellectual disability, 50 years after it was published
As this year could be considered the ‘centenary of insomnia’, Jim Horne looks at how understanding of the psychological aspects was slow to develop.
Malcolm Macmillan updates a familiar tale, 160 years after its inception.
Christian Jarrett on the lure of academic myths and their place in classic psychology
As the latest Olympics gets under way, John Kremer and Aidan Moran explore how the subdiscipline – after a few false starts – has grown ever fitter
Graham Richards reflects on William McDougall’s influential 1908 textbook.
Including Elizabeth Valentine on the British Psychological Society of 1908 – membership, meetings, publications and perennial issues; plus a report from the recent History and Philosophy of Psychology Section conference.
Hugh Gault on John Thomas Perceval, a pioneer whose work for the mental health advocacy movement led to lasting improvements in mental health care.
Toni Brennan looks at the life of Charlotte Wolff (1897–1986)