Urged on by his father to become a physician instead of a painter, William James pursued 3 evasion stratagems. First, to avoid becoming a practitioner, he declared that he wanted to specialize in physiology. Based upon this premise, he left for Germany in the spring of 1867. The second step was giving up general physiology and announcing that he would specialize in the nervous system and psychology. Based upon this premise, he declared that he would go to Heidelberg and study with Helmholtz and Wundt. However, he then deferred going there. When, at last, he was urged by an influential friend of his father’s to accompany him to Heidelberg, he employed his default stratagem: He simply fled. He returned home after 3 terms in Europe without enrolling at a single university. There is no evidence that he had learned anything there about psychology or experimental psychology, except, possibly, by reading books. James’s “Heidelberg fiasco” was the apogee of his evasion of his father’s directive. A dense fog of misinformation surrounds his stay in Heidelberg to this day. By analyzing circumstances and context, this article examines the fiasco and places it in the pattern of his behavior during his stay in Europe. Nevertheless, experiencing this fiasco potentially shaped James’s ambivalent attitude toward experimental psychology on a long-term basis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
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Gale, Richard M.;
(1999)
The Divided Self of William James
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(2000)
History in the Making: What Will Become of William James's House and Legacy?
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Wolf, Stewart;
(1993)
Brain, Mind, and Medicine: Charles Richet and the Origins of Physiological Psychology
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Article
Skousgaard, Stephen;
(1976)
The phenomenology in William James' philosophical psychology
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Woodward, William R.;
(1984)
William James's psychology of will: Its revolutionary impact on American psychology
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Article
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(1984)
The positivist foundation in William James's Principles
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Croce, Paul;
(2009)
Nature's Beloved Incarnations: Inquiry, Conviction, and William James
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Article
Taylor, Eugene;
(2010)
William James on a Phenomenological Psychology of Immediate Experience: The True Foundation for a Science of Consciousness?
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(2009)
Between Peirce (1878) and James (1898): G. Stanley Hall, the Origins of Pragmatism, and the History of Psychology
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Thesis
Kamerbeek, Christopher;
(2010)
The Ghost and the Corpse: Figuring the Mind/Brain Complex at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001567186/)
Article
Ferreri, Antonio M.;
(2003)
Il dibattito su James e sullo stream of thought/consciousness nelle riviste psicologiche statunitensi, 1887--1910
(/isis/citation/CBB000502706/)
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Wernham, James C.S.;
(1987)
James's will-to-believe doctrine: A heretical view
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Ferreri, Antonio M.;
(2006)
The Contribution of William James to the Origins of “Scientific” Psychology
(/isis/citation/CBB001023633/)
Chapter
Leary, David E.;
(2010)
Instead of Erklären and Verstehen: William James on Human Understanding
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Lucas McGranahan;
(2017)
Darwinism and Pragmatism: William James on Evolution and Self-Transformation
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Thibaud Trochu;
William James;
(2018)
William James. Une autre histoire de la psychologie
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Donnelly, Margaret E.;
(1992)
Reinterpreting the legacy of William James
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Smith, Roger;
(2013)
Between Mind and Nature: A History of Psychology
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Keen, Ernest;
(2001)
A History of Ideas in American Psychology
(/isis/citation/CBB000102301/)
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James, William;
Skrupskelis, Ignas K.;
Berkeley, Elizabeth M.;
James, Henry;
(1992-2004)
The Correspondence of William James, Volumes 1--12
(/isis/citation/CBB000630357/)
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