The founding of the British Psychological Society

On 24 October 1901 a group of 10 people met at University College London and founded what became the British Psychological Society. But what made this event possible in the first place? A number of important historical factors can be identified.

The creation of social roles for 'experts of the self' 

Mesmerism and phrenology had encouraged ordinary people to consult experts to obtain advice about how to heal and improve themselves. Mesmerism is also a historical example of the process whereby physical phenomena (electricity and magnetism) provide metaphors for the emergence of novel psychological phenomena (hypnosis).

The development of an evolutionary physiological psychology 

The key texts of this antimetaphysical movement were: Spencer's Principles of Psychology (1855); Bain's The Senses and the Intellect (1855) and The Emotions and the Will (1859); Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872); and Carpenter's Principles of Mental Physiology (1874). 'Darwin's Bulldog' T.H. Huxley praised Carpenter for having contributed 'to the foundation of a rational, that is to say a physiological, psychology'.

The appearance of forums for discussion 

Edward Cox established the Psychological Society of Great Britain in 1875, proposing 'only to collect facts and investigate psychological phenomena' (Richards, 2001). After it folded in 1879 some of its members set up the Society for Psychical Research to gather information on telepathy, hypnotism, hauntings and hallucinations. The Aristotelian Society (1880), Croom Robertson's Psychological Club (1880s) and Bain and Croom Robertson's Mind: A Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy (1876), were also important vehicles. Alexander Faulkner Shand (1858–1936), a barrister by training, hosted many early Society dinners at his home in Kensington. (Genealogists may note him as the great-grandfather of Camilla Parker-Bowles.)

The establishment of experimental psychological laboratories 

Francis Galton set up an Anthropometric Laboratory in London in 1884 to record statistical variations in 'natural ability'. Three years later James McKeen Cattell established a small, short-lived laboratory in Cambridge. W.H.R. Rivers (1864–1922) also set up a laboratory there in 1897. With help from Galton, James Sully (1842–1923) opened an experimental psychology laboratory at University College London in January 1898. That same year members of the Cambridge anthropological expedition Charles Myers, William McDougall (1871–1938) and Rivers set up a makeshift laboratory on Mer, an island in the Torres Straits archipelago.

The emergence of markets for psychological expertise in education 

Compulsory education was introduced in England in 1876. Inspired by Galton, north London Collegiate School Headmistress Sophie Bryant (1850–1922) gave mental tests to her students in 1886. A philosopher and libertarian feminist, Bryant was described by Cattell as 'one of the ablest women in England'. Bain, Ward, Lloyd Morgan and Sully all wrote psychological textbooks for teachers.

The introduction of new legislation pertaining to the care of the insane 

The Lunacy Act was passed in 1890. Four years later, the London County Council's asylum at Claybury was opened with Frederick Mott (1853–1926) as Director. One of his achievements was to demonstrate that 'general paralysis of the insane' had a syphilitic aetiology. Robert Armstrong-Jones (1859–1943), the asylum's first Medical Superintendent, introduced training courses for asylum nurses. W.G. Smith (1866–1918), Director of Claybury's Department of Experimental Psychology, was one of the few British psychologists to have studied with Wundt. Smith later set up the first psychological laboratory in Scotland.

The invention of the psychology textbook

Sully's Outlines of Psychology (1884), revised as The Human Mind (1892), would later be described as 'the most scholarly, comprehensive and well-balanced factual textbook of psychology ever produced by a British psychologist' (Hearnshaw, 1964, p.134) Stout's Manual of Psychology (1898) became the most widely used psychology textbook in Britain.

The creation of psychology teaching positions in universities

After a career spent in journalism, Sully became Professor of Philosophy at University College London in 1892. The following year Rivers was appointed Lecturer on the Physiology of the Special Senses at Cambridge University. Stout was the first holder of the University of Aberdeen's Anderson Lectureship in comparative psychology in 1896. Two years later Dr Henry Wilde, an electrical engineer, offered the capital to Oxford University to endow a Readership in Mental Philosophy. The holder was obliged to lecture 'on the illusions and delusions which are incident to the human mind' and 'on the psychology of the lower races of mankind'.

The emergence of 'human kinds' as targets of psychological knowledge and intervention

'Feeble-minded child', 'criminal' and 'lunatic' had become terms of common parlance. Havelock Ellis published The Criminal in 1890, the year in which The National Association for Promoting the Welfare of the Feeble-Minded was founded. The British Child Study Association, of which Sully was an active member, was set up in 1894. Formed at a time when cultural fears about national degeneration were widespread, many of the Psychological Society's members were interested in eugenics. Armstrong-Jones, Burt, McDougall, Mott and Myers were all members of the Eugenics Society.

International developments

The American Journal of Psychology was founded in 1887; the American Psychological Association in 1892; and L'année psychologique in 1894. The First International Congress of Psychology was held in 1889. Three founder members of the Psychological Society were to leave British shores in subsequent years. McDougall became Professor of Psychology at Harvard in 1920. William Boyce Gibson (1869–1935) was appointed Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at the University of Melbourne in 1912. Frank Hales (1878–1952) emigrated to Canada in 1905 and became a farmer.

The creation of the Psychological Society in 1901 was therefore brought about by a combination of practical, intellectual, literary and scientific factors. James Sully, the most senior founder member of the Society (see biography below), had witnessed many of these developments at first hand. It was appropriate that it was he who was accorded the honour of presenting the first paper to the Society's first meeting. His topic was 'The evolution of laughter'.

References

Hearnshaw, L. S. (1964) A short history of British psychology 1840–1940. London: Methuen.

Richards, G. (2001) 'Edward Cox, The Psychological Society of Great Britain (1875–1879) and the meanings of an institutional failure'. In G. C. Bunn,A. D. Lovie and G. D. Richards (Eds.), Psychology in Britain: Historical essays and personal reflections. Leicester: BPS Books.

JAMES Sully (1842–1923) has more reason than most to be remembered in this centenary year, for it was he who called the meeting at which the Society was formed in 1901. Apparently he wished to set on a more formal footing discussions that William McDougall was in the habit of holding in his laboratory at University College London with those interested in psychology. A great facilitator, he was also instrumental in setting up the first major psychological laboratory in Britain (at UCL in 1898; see Valentine, 1999), promoted psychology by writing a number of textbooks (some of the first in English) for different audiences, and helped to negotiate the boundaries between professional and amateur practice (see Gurjeva, 2001).

Initially training for the nonconformist ministry, Sully obtained a BA and MA in philosophy. He studied abroad under Lotze in Göttingen, and under Helmholtz and DuBois-Reymond in Berlin. He became a freelance journalist to help support his family, writing scores of articles for general interest periodicals such as the Fortnightly Review and Cornhill Magazine. He was a frequent contributor to Mind, also contributing articles in French to Ribot's Revue Philosophique, and was invited to join the first editorial board of the Psychological Review.

Sully's primary interest was 'genetic' psychology (i.e. developmental psychology in a broad sense). He was one of the moving spirits behind the child study movement and played a key role as an intermediary between teachers and parents on the one hand and professional scientists on the other. His eight major texts include Illusions (1881), commended by Freud and Wundt; Sensation and Intuition (1874); Outlines of Psychology (1884), adopted as a class text by William James; the Teacher's Handbook (1886); and An Essay on Laughter (1902). His classic Studies of Childhood (1895), which included observations of his son during the first six years of life and original studies of children's drawings, has recently been reprinted (Sully, 2000). He also contributed an entry on evolution (a central theme in his work) to the ninth edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

Sully was appointed to the Grote Chair of Mind and Logic at University College London in 1892, a post he held until his retirement in 1903. He was at the centre of London intellectual life for more than a quarter of a century, and was appointed joint secretary of the Second International Congress of Psychology, which met in London in 1892. His son Clifford wrote an early pamphlet on the fallibility of eyewitness testimony, specifically the procedure of line-ups, and appears to have been the Society's first librarian.

References

Gurjeva, L. (2001). James Sully and scientific psychology 1860–1910. In G. C. Bunn,A. D. Lovie & G. D. Richards (Eds.)., Psychology in Britain: Historical essays and personal reflections (pp. 72–94). Leicester: BPS Books.

Sully, J. (2000). Studies of childhood. London: Free Association Press. (Original work published 1895)

Valentine, E. R. (1999).The founding of the Psychological Laboratory, University College London:'Dear Galton ...Yours truly, J. Sully'. History of Psychology, 2, 204–218.