Mary Henle

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Mary Henle (born July 14, 1913 in Cleveland , Ohio , † November 17, 2007 in Haverford , Pennsylvania ) was an American psychologist. She is one of the best-known representatives of Gestalt theory or Gestalt psychology in the USA . Until her retirement she taught at the New School of Social Research in New York .

Life

Mary Henle was born in 1913 into a family that was unusual for the time: Her mother, Pearl Hahn Henle, was a medical doctor - her father enrolled her in medical school without being asked and graduated as one of the best. Henle's father Leo Henle, on the other hand, who immigrated from Germany ( Stuttgart ) to the USA in 1880 at the age of 15 , was unable to realize his dream of becoming a scientist for economic reasons and had to be content with intensive self-study. In this education-friendly climate, Mary Henle and her two siblings were able to find a lot of support for their academic ambitions - her brother Paul became a philosophy professor, her sister Jane turned to classical archeology.

Mary Henle first attended Smith College , with a degree in French in 1930. This was followed by a bachelor's degree in 1934, in which she also took some psychology seminars. She was positively impressed by this and began her master’s degree in psychology - at an institute that had very renowned teachers in the form of James J. Gibson , Eleanor J. Gibson and Kurt Koffka . Her encounter with Koffka aroused her interest in Gestalt theory, which was to accompany her throughout her life. However, she did her doctorate at another university, at Bryn Mawr College , after taking up an assistant position at Harry Helson and receiving a solid education in experimental methods. At the Institute of Helson it was Donald W. MacKinnon (was studying in Berlin Gestalt psychology), who with the gestalt theory field theory of Kurt Lewin familiar and made her into this kind of experimental research.

She received her doctorate in 1939, followed by a research assistantship at Swarthmore College with Robert B. MacLeod . During this time there was also an encounter with Wolfgang Köhler . MacLeod, who had studied in Berlin, invited Wolfgang Köhler to Swarthmore in 1935 , where he taught until 1955. Henle attended Köhler's seminars and was involved in experimental research with him. This resulted in a close intellectual connection that lasted until Köhler's death in 1967.

In 1942 Harry Helson called her back to Bryn Mawr, where she taught psychology for graduates for the first time. After two years, Henle was appointed to the psychological institute at Sarah Lawrence College . In 1946, on Köhler's recommendation , Solomon Asch invited her to teach at the New School for Social Research in New York, where she stayed until the end of her academic career.

In an autobiographical review, Henle paid tribute to the many positive, beneficial circumstances and assistance that she had received for her academic career. But she had also not forgotten the difficulties with which she, as a woman and Jew, had to struggle in the academic world in the USA, especially in the 1930s.

plant

Mary Henle's empirical research initially dealt with problems of perception (together with Koffka), then with motivational studies and investigations into substitute action (1942, 1944) in the tradition of Kurt Lewin , with the psychology of thinking and the possibilities of a phenomenological approach Personality psychology , finally with questions of rationality and the relationship between thinking and logic. In 1948 she and DW MacKinnon published a handbook on experimental research into psychodynamics. Henle later turned intensively to research into the history of ideas in psychology.

In addition to her own research work, Henle endeavored all his life to make the Gestalt theory of the Berlin School ( Wertheimer , Köhler, Koffka, etc.) known in its authentic basic positions in the USA, to represent it and to defend it against interpretations that they believed to be falsifying:

  • In 1961 she published the anthology Documents of Gestalt Psychology , which, following the A Source Book of Gestalt Psychology (edited by Willis D. Ellis) published in 1938, provided an updated presentation of important core positions in Gestalt theory: The volume contained a presentation of "Gestalt theory today "by Wolfgang Köhler, Max Wertheimer's essays on truth, the theory of ethics, democracy and freedom, as well as a series of essays by Wolfgang Köhler, Rudolf Arnheim , Hans Wallach , Solomon E. Asch , Mary Henle himself and others on core topics of psychological theory , cognitive processes, social psychology and motivation and the psychology of expression, art and emotion. In 1970 the book was also published in Italian translation.
  • Ten years later, the anthology Selected Papers of Wolfgang Köhler (1971) followed, which made previously scattered articles by Köhler on the epistemological , psychophysical , cognitive-psychological and epistemological positions of Gestalt theory available.
  • Henle's self-image as a representative and defender of the gestalt theory tradition comes perhaps most strongly in her anthology 1879 and all that , published in 1986 . Essays in the Theory and History of Psychology , which uses some of its most succinct essays on core topics of Gestalt theory to advertise a more careful questioning of the concepts, assumptions and terms used in psychology in terms of their historical background and their actual meaning.

In the field of psychotherapy theory, her confrontation with the late work of Fritz Perls , the founder of Gestalt therapy , which arose in this context , became known: Gestalt Psychology and Gestalt Therapy (1975). In this essay (the written version of a lecture given to the American Psychological Association), Henle rejects the equation of gestalt psychology and gestalt therapy that has been widespread, especially in the USA (see also web links ). Henle's essay has been criticized by some representatives of Gestalt therapy with the argument that Henle only refers unilaterally to Perls' three last books, ignores the rest of the Gestalt therapy literature and thus arrives at a distorting picture. Henle had already justified her choice in her essay by saying that Perls himself had retrospectively declared his earlier works to be obsolete. In addition, it was not about a judgment about the therapy method, but about an examination of some metatheoretical basic statements of Perls and their relationship to Gestalt theory. Therefore, the fact that at this point in time Gestalt therapy was no longer identical with the "late" Fritz Perls, but that u. a. Laura Perls ' work on the east coast was in part significantly different.

In German-speaking countries today, gestalt theory psychotherapy in particular draws on Henle's work, in particular on her work on substitute education and on her phenomenological approach to personality theory, which also provides the basis for dialogical work in psychotherapy.

In 1978, in the "American Psychologist", Henle paid tribute to Wolfgang Köhler's courageous efforts in National Socialist Germany against the persecution of his Jewish colleagues in a widely acclaimed article: "One Man Against the Nazis - Wolfgang Köhler".

Mary Henle served as President of Division 26 (History of Psychology) from 1971–1972 and President of Division 24 (Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA) from 1974–1975 . 1981–1982 she was president of the Eastern Psychology Association. In 1983 the New School for Social Research awarded her an honorary doctorate.

Works (selection)

  • 1942: An Experimental Investigation of Dynamic and Structural Determinants of Substitution . Duke University Press (Durham, NC).
  • 1944: The Influence of Valence on Substitution. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied . Volume 17, Issue 1, 11-19.
  • 1948 (with DW MacKinnon): Experimental studies in psychodynamics: A laboratory manual . Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
  • 1961: Documents of Gestalt Psychology . University of California Press. Reprinted 2011: Literary Licensing, LLC, ISBN 978-1258021160 .
  • 1962: Some Aspects of the Phenomenology of the Personality . Psychological contributions, Volume VI, Issue 3-4, 1962, pp. 395-404.
  • 1971: Selected Papers of Wolfgang Köhler . Liveright Books, New York, ISBN 0-87140-025-1 .
  • 1973: Historical conceptions of psychology . Springer, New York, ISBN 0-8261-1430-X . (in cooperation with Julian Jaynes )
  • 1976: Vision and artifact . Springer, New York, ISBN 0-8261-1960-3 .
  • 1979: Phenomenology in Gestalt psychology. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 10 , 1-17.
  • 1986: 1879 and all that. Essays in the Theory and History of Psychology . Columbia University Press, New York, ISBN 0-231-06170-6 .

literature

  • Agnes N. O'Connell, Nancy F. Russo: Mary Henle . In: O'Connell & Russo (Eds.): Models of achievement. Reflections of eminent women in psychology . Columbia University Press, New York 1983, ISBN 0-231-05312-6 , pp. 220-232.
  • Michael Wertheimer (1990): Mary Henle (1913-). In: Agnes N. O'Connell, Nancy F. Russo (eds.), Women in Psychology: A Bio-bibliographic Sourcebook , 161-172.
  • Michael Wertheimer (2008): Mary Henle (1913-2007). American Psychologist, 63 (6), 557.
  • Edward Ragsdale (2008): Mary Henle (1913-2007). Gestalt Theory, 30 (1), 98-99.
  • Gerhard Stemberger (2010): On the life and work of Mary Henle (1913–2007) . Phenomenal 2 (2), 45-50.
  • G. Stemberger (2010): Mary Henle's contribution to the Gestalt theory of the person . Phenomenal 2 (2), 45-50.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. The biographical sources given in the literature for the following remarks.
  2. ↑ cf. the entry for Mary Henle in Psychology's Feminist Voices
  3. ↑ See the laboratory manual from 1948.
  4. ^ E. Ragsdale (2008): Mary Henle (1913-2007). Gestalt Theory, 30 (1), 98-99; G. Stemberger (2010): On the life and work of Mary Henle (1913–2007). Phenomenal 2 (2), 45-50.
  5. ↑ Allen R. Barlow, "Gestalt-Antecedent Influence or Historical Accident" , The Gestalt Journal , Volume IV, Number 2, (Fall, 1981).
  6. ↑ Mary Henle, Gestalt Psychology and Gestalt Therapy (PDF; 417 kB), introduction.
  7. ↑ see also Barlow: "Gestalt-Antecedent Influence or Historical Accident", 1981.
  8. ↑ see: G. Stemberger (2010): Mary Henles contribution to the Gestalt theory of the person. Phenomenal 2 (2), 45-50; D. Zabransky (2014): On "Dialogue Work" in Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy . Phenomenal 6 (1), 11-18.
  9. ↑ see full text: One Man Against the Nazis - Wolfgang Köhler , American Psychologist, October 1978, pp. 939-944.
  10. ↑ M. Wertheimer (2008): Mary Henle (1913-2007). American Psychologist, 63 (6), 557.
personal data
SURNAME Henle, Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American psychologist, exponent of Gestalt theory
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland, Ohio , USA
DATE OF DEATH November 17, 2007
Place of death Haverford