Dr. Brothers wasn't the first psychologist to popularize psychology
but she was the first to do so through the medium of television, though
it was initially through the game show "The $64,000 Question". Alas,
she has gone off to that "Big Game Show in the Sky" and various media
outlets have taken note. The most detailed obituary, so far, is in the
"USA Today" which can be read here:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/13/joyce-brothers-dead/2156805/
Here one learns how Dr. Brothers used her Columbia Ph.D. to
reach the masses:
|It was 1955. Her husband, Milton Brothers, was still in medical school
|and Brothers had just given up her teaching positions at Hunter College
|and Columbia University to be home with her newborn, firmly believing
|a child's development depended on it.
|
|But the young family found itself struggling on her husband's residency
|income. So Brothers came up with the idea of entering a television quiz
|show as a contestant.
|
|The $64,000 Question quizzed contestants in their chosen area of expertise.
|She memorized 20 volumes of a boxing encyclopedia - and, with that as
|her subject, became the only woman and the second person to ever win
|the show's top prize.
|
|Brothers tried her luck again on the superseding $64,000 Challenge,
|answering each question correctly and earning the dubious distinction
|as one of the biggest winners in the history of television quiz shows.
|She later denied any knowledge of cheating, and during a 1959 hearing
|in the quiz show scandal, a producer exonerated her of involvement.
|
|Her celebrity opened up doors. In 1956, she became co-host of Sports
|Showcast and frequently appeared on talk shows.
And so it goes.
It's interesting to note that for all her popularity, there are only two
entries
in PsycInfo by her, a 1950 article and her 1956 Genetic Psychology
Monograph article based on her dissertation; see:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13294437
I don't think anyone has cited it but one does wonder who her dissertation
advisor was and what he/she thought of her career. There's a Wikipedia
entry on her but, not surprisingly, not a whole lot of psychology in it
though
Brothers is quoted as saying "I invented media psychology". See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Brothers
Anyway, Dr. Brothers is probably one major reason why psychology is
held in the esteem that it is in American culture today.
And, yes, I am being ironic.
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
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