A Short History of British Psychology 1840-1940

L.S. Hearnshaw

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781000767360
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Developmental Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Originally published in 1964, the story of the development of psychology in Great Britain had never been told. In the 1840s, when John Stuart Mill wrote about 'Psychology' in his treatise on Logic, the word was hardly known to the British public. Today the subject is taught in nearly every university, and psychologists are professionally employed by many public bodies.

The British contribution to the dramatic rise of psychology was an exceptionally important one, and had been shamefully neglected not only by the public but by British psychologists themselves. The tendency at the time to regard the subject through American spectacles distorted the role of British pioneers. Significant British contributions had been almost completely forgotten – those of Carpenter, Lewes, Spalding and Lubbock for example – and the work of men such as Hughlings Jackson and Romanes had been greatly undervalued. Not the least important feature of the book is its reassessment of the work of many individuals.

In relating the rise of psychology and its application to concomitant developments in medicine, physiology, biology, sociology, anthropology and statistics and to changes in the prevailing philosophic climate, the author shows psychology to be an integral part of the scientific, intellectual and social history of the past century.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Preface
• Contents
• Chapter I Bain and his Background
• Chapter II Physiological and Abnormal Psychology to 1875
• Chapter III Evolution and Psychology
• Chapter IV Galton and the Beginning of Psychometrics
• Chapter V Developments in Neurology and Neurophysiology
• Chapter VI The Rise of Comparative Psychology
• Chapter VII The Foundations of Social Psychology
• Chapter VIII Changes in Philosophical Climate
• Chapter IX Systematic Psychology at the Turn of the Century
• Chapter X Abnormal Psychology from 1875 to 1914
• Chapter XI Experimental and Institutional Beginnings
• Chapter XII William McDougall (1871–1938)
• Chapter XIII The London School
• Chapter XIV British Psychology between the Wars
• Chapter XV Applied Psychology
• Select Bibliography
• Index of Names
• Index of Topics