Im doing a presentation on the European Invasion as it relates to the history of psychology. Specifically, beginning with the lead of the Freudians and the Gestaltists. Where do I begin a search for this?

-- Leslie Burrow (lburrow@uoguelph.ca), February 19, 2003

Answers

Depends on what the "question behind the question" is. Obviously you can read biographical material on the people involved. Most history of psychology texts address at least briefly the backgrounds of people like Wolfgang Koehler and Fritz Kunkel and others who left Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. If you read a biography of someone like Helene Deutsch or Alfred Adler, you'll find discussions of why they left Europe and their influence on American psychology. So ... I'd begin with history of psychology texts to see who some of the immigrants were, along with their contributions to the discipline.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), February 21, 2003.

Why "invasion"? Why not, say, "liberation"? :-)
In any case, the experimental or "physiological" psychology of the late 19th century was almost completely a European import as well -- though brought to North American mainly by American students (and one notable Brit -- Titchener) who had studied in Germany. It came along well before either Psychoanalysis or Gestalt theory.

-- Christopher Green (cgreen@chass.utoronto.ca), February 23, 2003.