On His Own Terms: William James, Identity, and the Development of American Psychology
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AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Kevin R. Stoller for the degree of Master of Arts in History of Science presented on July 24, 2002. Title: On His Own Terms: William James, Identity, and the Development of American Psychology. Redacted for privacy Abstract Approved: William James came of age at a time of great social and intellectual change in the United States. During this period, new professional identities proliferated, and a new culture of professionalization developed with important ramifications for conceptions of individual and social identity. Professionalization was also closely related to key intellectual developments of the time, such as the application of scientific methods to social and human questions and the consolidation of intellectual work within the university. This thesis chronicles James's struggle to find a place within this society that both satisfied his personal desire for individual growth and freedom and established him within the context of professional academia, arguing that James's difficulties in finding a professional identity were inseparable from his development of a unique intellectual voice. The thesis then explores how James expressed his personal identity and insights in his work as professional academic and psychologist. ©Copyright by Kevin R. Stoller July 24, 2002 All Rights Reserved On His Own Terms: William James, Identity, and the Development of American Psychology by Kevin R. Stoller A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Presented July 24, 2002 Commencement June 2003 Master of Arts thesis of Kevin R. Stoller presented on July 24,2002. IIIY] Redacted for privacy Major Professor, representfrig jsty of Science Redacted for privacy Redacted for privacy Dean of the Graduate School I understand that my thesis will become partof the permanent collection of Oregon State University libraries. My signaturebelow authorizes the release of mythesis to any reader upon request. Redacted for privacy Kevin R. Stoller, Author ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people contributed some portion of their hearts and minds to this thesis, and I would have struggled to complete the project without their help. My advisor, Bob Nye, has been both a true mentor and friend. His encouragement, humor, and intelligencenot to mention his cookinghave been a constant source of personal and intellectual inspiration for me. It is Bob, more than anyone else, who led me to pursue graduate work in history and shaped my scholarly growth. Jeff Sklansky and Paul Farber, my other committee members, have been models of patience and acumen. Their careful readings and sharp insights helped keep this thesisand its authorgrounded through the long and difficult writing process. Mark Largent invested as much time in my work as any committee member; his friendship and counsel proved to be invaluable as he saw me through multiple drafts and revisions. My friends and family deserve particular thanks. My parents and sister have supported me through many times, both good and bad, and I could never have accomplished what I have without their love and support. My friend Adam Farley read drafts of several chapters and provided a writer's eye, as well as a sympathetic, non-academic ear. My fellow graduate students, Erik Ellis, Kristin Johnson, and Chris Jolly, have been wonderful companions throughout my education. Above all, I owe more than I can express to Katherine Hubler. She lived through this with me, and only she knows how much that meant. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction................................................................................ 1 Chapter One: Transition and its Consequences: William James's Perilous Search for a Calling, 1842-1873....................................19 Chapter Two: Toward Psychology: Solving the Riddle of Ambivalence, 1865-1874.......................................................................67 Chapter Three: Translating the Lessons of Experience: James as Psychologist, Teacher, and Icon...............................................112 Conclusion................................................................................ 160 Bibliography.............................................................................. 174 On His Own Terms: William James, Identity, and the Development of American Psychology INTRODUCTION William James, America's greatest philosopher of moral freedom, felt the touch of destiny early in life. Shortly after his birth on January eleventh in 1842, the infant James received the blessing of Ralph Waldo Emerson as Henry James Senior, a father for the first time, looked on. For historians the scene has become symbolic of a continuity in the American intellectual tradition and the portent of James's arrival in the history of ideas. In this metaphor, Emerson, the nation's most celebrated intellectual for much of his life, imparts in his blessing his legacy to the child who would become his intellectual heir, a tableau made more poignant by the fact that six weeks earlierdays after James's birthEmerson's own first son, the five-year-old Waldo, had died. For his part, Henry may not have even been aware of the Emersons' recent loss, and the James household was accustomed to hosting Northeastern social and intellectual elites; nevertheless, this particular meeting remained one of the family's favorite anecdotes for many years and was imbued with unusual significance by Henry Sr. and, later, by James himself.' Henry hoped each of his four male children might achieve great things in life, but his expectations rested most weightily on hisWilliam.2James felt dearly the 'Gay Wilson Allen, William James, A Biography (New York: The Viking Press, 1967), p. 13. 2He and his wife, Mary Robertson Walsh James, had five children, the boys William, Henry Jr., Garth Wilkinson, and Robertson and one daughter, the youngest child, Alice. 2 burden of his father's hopes and assumptions, in turn absorbing them himself, albeit in a translated form. The aspiration to greatness was not easy for James to achieve or relinquish, and it continued to shadow his personal and professional choices throughout his formativeyears.3 James, of course, did ultimately become a great man by almost any standard, and his difficult ascent, overcoming mental and physical crises, to professional and individual success only lends his triumphs greater heroic luster. As an historical figure, he has entered the pantheon of American icons; like Franklin or Lincoln or Emerson, the name of William James is imbued with a cultural significance transcending his specific accomplishments. His is a legacy worth claiming for contemporary intellectuals, even more so today as thinkers like Richard Rorty have championed James's pragmatism as not only the original From a young age, James considered an ordinary life without any particular distinction to be unacceptable, a failure nearly as shattering as true failure. Like many men in the nineteenth century, James was convinced of the importance of great individuals in the shaping of history, and he understood his own life and achievements within the language of heroism. James eventually expressed his views on great men in his essays "Great Men and Their Environment" (1880) and "The Importance of Individuals" (1881), both published in The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1896) (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1956). For more on the heroic element in James's life and thought, see George Cotkin, William James, Public Philosopher (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990) and Kim Townsend, Manhood at Harvard: William James and Others (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1996). The cult of heroism and greatness was central to nineteenth-century Western culture. Expressedin,among others, the works of Goethe, Emerson, Thomas Carlyleanother James family friend, and Nietzsche, and satirized by LeO Tolstoy in War and Peace, the heroic ideal was unconsciously absorbed by the majority of Americans and Europeans of James's generation (James, ironically, loved War and Peace). See also Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: Voyaging, A Biography (New York: Knopf, 1995), p. xi and David Levering Lewis, WE.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868- 1919 (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1993), pp. 74-75, 115-116 for two additional examples, from near contemporaries of James's, of what was a nearly universal belief in the importance of individuals in history. 3 American philosophy but the philosophy of the future, the solution to the postmodern skeptical crisis. James's importance in U.S. history, as a link between the thought of the young agrarian republic of the ante-bellum years and the scientific philosophy of the modern industrial nation, often tends to eclipse his actual historical existence. James many times seems to tower over history in scholarly work, existing within boundaries defined only by his genius and his individual psychological world. This tendency is accentuated by the larger-than- life nature of James's personality. One senses today, reading his private journals and correspondence, that James always felt the gaze of history upon him and lived self-aware of future scrutiny andjudgment.4What comes across in his large body of published and personal writings is an extremely charismatic individual voice. James's ability to translate his individual problems into fundamental, philosophical questions continues to resonate with readers today, who find in his life an appealing parable of