The Original Duke Psychology Department

I was excited to find this picture when I went back down to Durham. From left to right: J. B. Rhine, (head of the Duke Parapsychology Lab) Don Adams (psychology professor, tried to sabotage the lab, but felt remorse about it later) Karl Zener, (psychology professor, designed the ESP cards that the lab made famous, and joined in Adams in trying to bring down the lab) William Stern, (psychology professor, invented the concept of IQ) I don’t know who this guy was, and Helge Lundholm, (psychology professor who, with Adams and Zener, tried to get William McDougall, the head of the psychology department, to do something drastic about J. B. Rhine and his Parapsychology Laboratory).

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One thought on “The Original Duke Psychology Department

  1. I love this photo, Stacy, and I think it’s great you’re highlighting the lab’s precariousness in the Duke Department of the era. Lots of folk think all the various parapsychology/psychical research labs/societies have — in the old days of course — enjoyed mainstream recognition, but the reality is that resistance against our presence in the academy has been strong and long-lived. (I’m wandering through your blogs tonight.)

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