the unlikely story of how America slipped the surly bonds of earth & came to
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The chart below shows the historical development of theories of intelligence. But theories of intelligence were aimed not just at finding highly gifted individuals. They were just as intent, if not more so, on identifying "morons" and the "feebleminded," for this map of cascading influence also traces the history of eugenics -- a term coined by Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin. James McKeen Cattell was a student of Galton's, and Edward L. Thorndike studied with Cattell. In the '30s, Thorndike was teaching educational psychology at Columbia, and running a research project that later resulted in a 1000-page textbook: Human Nature and the Social Order
Into this project in 1935, Thorndike invited a young psychologist who is not represented in this chart -- or indeed in any genealogy of eugenics I've been able to locate. And it hasn't been for lack of looking.
That man's name was Abraham Maslow.
to be continued...
posted by Christopher Locke at #
Friday, January 06, 2006
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