May you live until 120
It is a tradition when I was brought up to wish family and friends a long life - how long is long? "May you live to be 120" they would say.
22 January 2021
One of the first emails that popped up when I returned to work on 4th January was from the Comms team asking were there any particular anniversaries that HOPC (the BPS History of Psychology Centre) was commemorating this year which could be added to the calendar?
My first thought was that obviously the society was going to be 120 later this year, having been founded in1901.
What do you wish someone who had reached that apotheosis of age?
And what do you do to commemorate it?
Do you look back at the increase from 10 founding members to 70,000 today and the qualifications, courses, guidance and standards we are proud to have developed and which have had the effect of improving the lives for so many?
Or do we focus on the dark periods over the last century and more, the mistakes and shameful legacy of unreliable data, poor science, stigma, racism and eugenics?
Well obviously you do a bit of both.
You can't ignore or hide from the uncomfortable parts of your history nor pretend that everything and everyone was always perfect.
No one ever said that working on the history of psychology was going to be easy!
So, rather than resetting the clock to zero when we reach 120 (always a temptation), facing up to and learning from our past, good and bad, is the best birthday present for this year.
May we live 'til 120 and many years more.
- Claire Jackson, BPS Archivist