John Kulig wrote:
Freud, yes, was an M.D.
According to Hilgard's "Psychology in America" William James first
studied art, them Chemistry, then entered medical school at age 22 (in
1864 probably), took a field trip to Brazil with naturalist Louis
Agassiz, returned to Harvard and finally got the PhD in 1869.
James never earned a PhD. He earned an MD. (Indeed, his "PhD Octopus"
shows that he was not particularly enamored of the PhD). It is true
that he entered Harvard to study chemistry (with his future boss, future
Harvard president Charles Eliot) but that he wasn't very good at it and
moved on to physiology fairly quickly. He went with Agassiz and a number
of others on the Brazilian expedition in 1865, but fell ill soon after
arriving and spent much of the trip recuperating in Rio. He wasn't much
impressed by the trip either, lampooning it in a hilarious cartoon
reprinted in Louis Menand's _The Metaphysical Club_. He then went to
Germany, saying he wanted to study physiology with Helmholtz and "a man
named Wundt" in Heidelberg. He never attended their courses however,
preferring the art galleries of Leipzig. Only after all that did he
return to Harvard and start studying for his medical exams (presumably
on the basis of his earlier physiology courses).
Then depression, which was presumably lifted after reading Renouvier's
Deuxieme essai. This was "rational psychology" got James involved in the free will concept - leading to his famous quip "My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will."
A rather romantic notion that is makes for a pleasant narrative, but the
fact is that his depression contuinued for several months after that
journal entry. What is little-known is that James' depression became so
severe that he spent time in the Maclean Asylum outside of Boston in
early 1870. (The Maclean has never allowed the records to be seen, but
Robert Richards was able to pry the truth from a person who worked in
the archives there.)
I remember another to the effect that the first psych lecture he ever head was
the one he himself gave at Harvard, but cannot find a source for that one.
Probably technically true, given that the course was usually called
"mental philosophy" until after Wundt's physiological "revolution."
James was a member of the Chauncey Wright's metaphysical club, however,
which used Bain's mental philosophy as one of its main touchstones, and
in which Charles Sanders Peirce developed his pragmatic theory of
meaning (which James would adopt and expand some 25 years later). Oliver
Wendell Holmes Jr. was also a member. After Wright died unexpectedly in
1875, Eliot invited James to co-teach a course in physiology. The year
after he launched his first physiological psychology course, which used
Herbert Spencer's book as it's main text, as I recall.
Regards,
--
Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada
416-736-5115 ex. 66164
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo
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