Boring Expects Break Between Philosophy and Psychology Departments to go in Effect Shortly

"I hope and expect," said Edwin G. Boring, professor of Psychology, in an interview with the CRIMSON, "that the complete split between Psychology and Philosophy will come about in a few weeks.

"The history of psychology has been a very interesting one. Up till 1860 it was always a part of Philosophy. At that date a great move was started in Germany to break this relationship. This idea soon spread to America which soon surpassed Germany itself in the field, and in 1873 the first informal psychological laboratory here was set up at Harvard by William James. This was followed a few years later by a formal one at Leipzig, but Harvard has the honor of having the first laboratory.

"The importance of psychology in America has steadily grown from that time. All of the great colleges in America have already separated their Philosophy and Psychology departments. Harvard has held back from doing so only because of her desire to keep the number of departments as small as possible. There has been talk of the separation for over twelve years. In fact, the catalogue says that a concentrator in Philosophy shall take the majority of his courses from either Philosophy of Psychology.

"Last year it was decided to await the decision of the new president. This winter President Conant gave his approval to the split without commenting on the change. It is generally understood, however, that it was not part of his new plan. This is proved by the fact that he gave his support to the merger of Physiology, Zoology, and Botany at the same time.

"The advances made in psychology have been of great value to mankind. It is now possible to train people by psychological methods to be of great aid in helping others who are mal-adjusted in life. Although the principles of psychology are applied in business, trained psychologists are not employed directly.

"My hope for the future is that there will be more professorial appointments in the department so that general human psychology may be represented as well as the fields of social, animal, abnormal, and child psychology. A larger laboratory will eventually be a necessity in this growth; more support in the way of equipment will give the opportunity for the spreading out of the department."