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Copyright by Marshall J. Getz August 2012 i ON THE MIND’S FOREIGN SHORES: THE ORIGINS OF HENRY A. MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGY A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the College of Education University of Houston In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Marshall J. Getz August 2012 ii ON THE MIND’S FOREIGN SHORES: THE ORIGINS OF HENRY A. MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGY A Dissertation for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Marshall J. Getz Approved by Dissertation Committee: ________________________________ Dr. Jacqueline Hawkins, Co-Chairperson ________________________________ Dr. Robert McPherson , Co-Chairperson ________________________________ Dr. David Baker, Committee Member ________________________________ Dr. Rick Olenchak, Committee Member ___________________________________ Dr. Robert McPherson, Dean College of Education August 2012 iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Staff of the Harvard Archives at the Pusey Library, as well as the Staff of the Houghton Library, for their generous help and assistance with this project. Dr. Caroline “Nina” Murray was kind enough to grant me access to her late husband’s papers. Dr. Robert R. Holt and Dr. Hallee Morgan granted interviews, and gave me valuable insight. I also wish to express my appreciation to my professors at the University of Houston, who advised me and helped make my work better. They are Drs. Hannah Decker, Jacqueline Hawkins, Robert McPherson, Rick Olenchak, and Edwin Willems. I would also like to thank Dr. David Baker of the University of Akron (OH), who also made important suggestions and helped me better understand Henry Murray’s significance in the history of psychology. iv ON THE MIND’S FOREIGN SHORES: THE ORIGINS OF HENRY A. MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGY An Abstract of a Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the College of Education University of Houston In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Marshall J. Getz August 2012 v Getz, Marshall J. “On the Mind’s Foreign Shores: The Origins of Henry A. Murray’s Personology.” Unpublished Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation, University of Houston, August 2012. Abstract Henry A. Murray (1893-1988) became one of America’s premier scholars in personality research. While most psychologists remember him as the co-developer of the Thematic Apperception Test, he and a large and devoted staff at the Harvard Psychological Clinic devised numerous techniques for studying personality, in support of a theory that Murray called personology (Morgan & Murray, 1935; Robinson, 1992). Personology was described at length in Murray’s first major work, Explorations in Personality (Murray, 1938). An amalgam of Jungian analysis and trait psychology, Murray obviously borrowed from a number of theoretical sources, including Gordon Allport (1967) and Kurt Lewin (1936, 1937/1999). A study of the origins of personology will contribute to a better understanding of the early years of personality psychology, including the limits of methodologies used in the 1930s. The term “individual differences” was not in vogue with Murray and his circle, but his system addressed a subject’s unique needs and external pressures. Since much of Murray’s original documentation has been archived at Harvard, the story of how Murray and his colleagues communicated and conceptualized their work may now be told. Questions remain about Murray’s specific influences. Murray (1959a, 1967) credited medicine and literature for inspiring personology, he later confessed an almost exclusive debt to his colleague and mistress, Christiana Morgan (Anderson, 1999; Douglas, 1993; Robinson, 1992). vi If a researcher looks beyond Murray’s brief autobiography (Murray, 1967) or the Robinson (1992) biography, which was primarily based on interviews with Murray, it is possible to find other roots to personology. The Henry A. Murray Papers in the Harvard University Archives offer extensive materials, most of which have not been previously used. Murray had close friendships with three senior scholars: mathematician Alfred North Whitehead, physician George Draper and biochemist Lawrence Henderson, and his notes and correspondence suggest that all three played a subtle but important role in establishing the foundations of personology. Previous Murray scholarship focused on Morgan and Carl Jung, but the importance of patterns and personology’s incorporation of evolution came from these now-obscure figures. vii Preface Choosing to write about Henry A. Murray is not a task to be taken lightly. He lived to be 95, had multiple careers, myriad interests, and had an extremely complicated personal life. Although he held two advanced degrees, neither was in psychology. An intellectual, he also described himself in highly-charged, emotional tones. In one article, he noted being attracted to dark-themed pictures, but also wrote that he had an enthusiasm that he dubbed a “sanguine surplus” (Murray, 1967). To the joy and alarm of an archival researcher, Murray saved virtually every paper connected with his life from age 20 until his death. Murray’s true legacy is a school of thought called personology. His theory differs from the personology system devised by a judge, who believed that he could decide on a defendant’s moral standard by examining his or her face. Murray’s personology has three basic concepts: needs, press and themas. Needs are Freudian drives, while press would be external forces acting on an individual. Themas are the life themes that arise from needs and press. Murray considered needs first, and as he defined them, they seem comparable to the drives of psychoanalytic literature. According to Murray, people are preset to react in given ways because of needs. Adopting the language of psychoanalysis, Murray viewed needs as causing tension, although satisfying a need may generate further tension. Themas impact individuals at an unconscious level, although a therapist may make an individual aware of them. Personology addresses the individual. Darwinism and psychoanalysis inform it in equal measure. Environments vary widely, yet few are experienced only by a single individual. University classes, corporations, wars and stranded elevators all provide viii environments which will be shared by many, and each of those people will seem to have a unique experience. Literature and history offer numerous examples of the young soldier who matures on the battlefield, while another finds his calling, and a third returns home traumatized. Personology offers a way to conceptualize both the individuals and the situations. The purpose of this study is not to define personology – Murray (1938, 1959a, 1967) did that himself – but to research its origins. Murray did not explain himself clearly on that point. Murray changed his story frequently, associating personology with psychoanalysis, his medical education, his reading of Melville, and ultimately thanking the mysterious and complex woman who was at the center of his life. Murray followed many leads in his life, and became overly enthusiastic with each discovery. Still, his private papers suggest other significant factors behind his theory. Three scholars made a lasting impact on his work, yet in the relatively limited forums adopted by Murray, their names were not necessarily left out, but not fully explained. This study explores their influence on personology. Murray warrants study because he pioneered personality research when few American psychologists considered it. He designed and implemented a comprehensive research methodology that would be used at Harvard and other institutions. Not only have others followed him, but they should credit Murray for completing one of the first major longitudinal studies. His team studied 50 Harvard students and duplicated their testing on the same subjects two years later. Murray’s theory of personology led to much of the groundwork in motivation research, mainly through the efforts of Murray’s student, David McClelland, and McClelland’s student, John Atkinson. They carried out ix the first projects on the so-called “Big Three” needs – n Achievement, n Power and the n Affiliation/Intimacy – which have become the keystones of motivation. Murray made a lasting impact in industrial psychology, because of his work for the US military during the Second World War. Recruited into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1943, he developed a battery for officer candidates that would eventually be adopted by major companies, with AT&T being one of the first. This project focuses on some of the many origins of personology, with a particular focus on three figures who have not yet been sufficiently covered in this story. Before setting the limited parameters of this research project, some of the fundamental issues for justifying it might be helpful. Most psychologists remember Murray as the man behind the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), which he co-developed with his mistress, Christiana Morgan. Murray believed that the TAT was the ideal way to make a thema explicit to a patient. While the TAT remains one of the major projective instruments in use today (Lilienfeld, Wood & Garb, 2000), personology contributed more to psychology. Murray (1940) did not wish to be remembered for a test, but rather as the scholar who brought psychoanalysis and research psychology together. When Murray found himself at odds with some of Harvard’s psychology faculty, he took an extreme, almost anti-scientific stand, which masked his truly remarkable research endeavors. He