Constructing Scientific Psychology: Karl Lashley's Mind-Brain Debates (Cambridge Studies in the History of Psychology)

Constructing Scientific Psychology is the first full-scale interpretation of the life and work of the major American neuropsychologist Karl Lashley. It sets Lashley's research at the heart of two controversies that polarized the American life and human sciences in the first half of the twentieth century. These concerned the relationship between "mind" and "brain" and the relative roles of "nature" and "nurture" in shaping behavior and intelligence. The book explodes the myth of Lashley's neuropsychology as a fact-driven, "pure" science by arguing that a belief in the power of heredity and a nativist and deeply conservative racial ideology informed every aspect of his theory and practice. Constructing Scientific Psychology Is The First Full-scale Interpretation Of The Life And Work Of The Major American Neuropsychologist Karl Lashley That Sets Lashley's Creation Of A Laboratory-centered, Decisively Materialistic Science Of Brain And Behavior In Its Scientific And Social Contexts. The Book Places Lashley's Neuropsychology At The Heart Of Two Controversies That Polarized The Sciences Of Mind And Brain In The U.s. In The First Half Of The Twentieth Century. 1. Lashley And Jennings: The Origins Of A Hereditarian -- 2. Lashley, Watson, And The Meaning Of Behaviorism -- 3. The Pursuit Of A Neutral Science -- 4. Neuropsychology And Hereditarianism -- 5. Psychobiology And Progressivism -- 6. Psychobiology And Its Discontents: The Lashley-herrick Debate -- 7. Hull And Psychology As A Social Science -- 8. Intelligence Testing And Thinking Machines: The Lashley-hull Debate -- 9. Pure Psychology -- 10. Public Science And Private Life -- 11. Genetics, Race Biology, And Depoliticization -- Epilogue: Lashley And American Neuropsychology -- App. Archives Holding Lashley Material. Nadine M. Weidman. Originally Presented As The Author's Thesis (doctoral)--cornell University, Early 1990s. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 195-212) And Index. This 1999 book was the first full-scale interpretation of the life and work of the major American neuropsychologist Karl Lashley. The book explodes the myth of Lashley's neuropsychology as a fact-driven, 'pure' science by arguing that a belief in the power of heredity and a nativist and deeply conservative racial ideology informed every aspect of his theory and practice. In an obituary of his mentor, Frank Beach described the life and career of Karl Spencer Lashley as the embodiment of many contradictions.