Dap Louw wrote:
> I'm looking for info on psychologists who have made important
> research contributions . For example, as far as I know two trained
> psychologists have received the Nobel Prize: Roger Sperry for his
> split-brain research, but I don't know who the other person and
> what his contribution was. Do you know what their qualifications in
> psychology are?
I'm not going to answer Dap's question (because I don't know the answer) but I
did want to mention the only psychiatrist who ever won a Nobel Prize: a former
classmate of Sigmund Freud, Julius Wagner von Jauregg, who won the prize for
his fever treatment of general paresis. Another reason for recommending Wagner
(in my opinion, at least) was that he was highly critical of Freud's work.
According to Roazen (1984):
"Although Wagner may have admired Freud personally, ... as a leading
psychiatrist [he had a chair in psychiatry at the University of Vienna] Wagner
had to take a position vis-á-vis psychoanalysis. What to Freud seemed like
great discoveries were so much nonsense to him.... [although] Wagner was more
mocking than aggressively hostile to Freud's ideas." (p. 225)
Freud had a great desire to win the Nobel Prize himself. According to Gay
(1988), Freud was first nominated for the Prize in 1917 (in physiology and
medicine) by a Nobel laureate, Robert Barany, but he did not win. Others
continued to nominate him often in the years following 1917. In the late 1920s,
for example, a psychoanalyst by the name of Heinrich Meng mounted an intense
campaign to get the Prize awarded to Freud, but in literature this time, not
medicine, because a consultant for the latter prize viewed Freud to be a "fraud
and a menace." Many distinguished people supported Freud's candidacy for the
Nobel Prize in literature:
"He [Meng] collected an impressive outpouring of prestigious signatures; those
responding included such prominent German admirers as the novelists Alfred
Döblin and Jakob Wasserman, and also eminent foreigners--philosophers like
Bertrand Russell, educators like A.S. Neill, biographers like Lytton Strachey,
scientists like Julian Huxley.... Eugen Bleuler, too, though he had after some
years' flirtation eluded Freud's wooing, joined the signatories." (Gay, p. 456)
Albert Einstein refused to sign, stating that he was unable to offer an
authoritative opinion of Freud's work.
The fact that he never was awarded a Nobel Prize seemed to rankle Freud, even
though he was awarded many other prestigious awards throughout the last several
decades of his life.
I, too, have been passed over for the Nobel Prize many times. Freud and I have
that much in common. I did, however, once receive a "World's Best Dad" trophy.
Did Freud?? I thought not!
Jeff
Reference:
Roazen, P. (1984). Freud and his followers. Washington Square, NY: New York
University Press.
Gay, P. (1988). Freud: A life for out time. New York: Anchor.
--
Jeffry P. Ricker, Ph.D. Office Phone: (480) 423-6213
9000 E. Chaparral Rd. FAX Number: (480) 423-6298
Psychology Department [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Scottsdale Community College
Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626
"Science must begin with myths and with the criticism of myths"
Karl Popper
Listowner: Psychologists Educating Students to Think Skeptically (PESTS)
http://www.sc.maricopa.edu/sbscience/pests/index.html
