PSYC312 - HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 6 Notes - The Birth of the New Applied Psychology in America The Beginnings of Clinical Psychology - Early experimental psychologists focused on understanding the normal mind -> not abnormality or mental disorders. · Mental disorders were the domain of psychiatry and neurology. · Profession of psychiatry emerged in North America as part of mental asylum movement · American Psychiatric Association was formerly known as Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane. - As cities grew and families were packed into more densely populated areas, home care of mentally disturbed family members became more of a problem. - First North American "lunatic asylums" appeared in late 1700s in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, while Canada's first asylum was established in Quebec City in 1845. · Mental asylums emerged to deal with psychological cases and to offer the hope of cure of mental illness through moral therapy. · Chronic cases soon became the norm, and insane asylums (later sxtate and provincial hospitals) became warehouses of hopeless humanity. · Psychologists began to show an interest in insanity > already been domain of psychiatry for a century. Issue of priority and ownership would prove problematic in the 20th century > profession of clinical psychology evolved and challenged exclusivity of psychiatry as sole provider of mental health practitioners. - - Boris Sidis · Student of William James · Established a research laboratory in the New York Pathological Institute . William Krohn set up a research lab at the Eastern Hospital for the Insane in Kankakee, Illinois > anomaly for their time. Lightner Witmer's Psychological Clinic - 1896: a schoolteacher visited Lightner Witmer (1867-1956) at the University of Pennsylvania, bringing with her a boy of 14 who had difficulty spelling. · Established first psychological lab in US " Founder of clinical and school psychology . Witmer reopened the psychology lab at Penn after returning from Leipzig with his doctorate in 1892. " Teacher had been a student in one of Witmer's classes and believed boy's problem was a mental one " Witmer treated the case successfully > led to additional cases being brought to him as word of his successes spread in the educational community. · Instances led Witmer in 1896 to found what was perhaps the first psychological clinic in the world. Witmer discussed therapeutic program at annual meeting of APA -> urged colleagues to use psychology "to throw light upon the problems that confront humanity." - · Hoped his field would establish training programs that would develop a "psychological expert who is capable of treating the many difficult cases that resist the ordinary methods of the school room." " For the first few years of the clinic, Witmer saw all of the cases himself, mostly children with learning disabilities or behavioral disorders. · As demand grew, Witmer hired additional staff, including some of his doctoral students in psychology. 1907: founded a new journal entitled The Psychological Clinic - " Journal consisted largely of Penn's