william t£n: 1871 _ 1938

William Stern was both a pioneer and a systematizer in psychology. His mind
was one of the first to range several of the special fields that are now familiar territory. He
will be remembered especially for his sure-footed explorations in differential psychology,
forensic psychology, psychotechnics, child psychology, and intelligence testing. But he will
be remembered likewise and, I think, with increasing renown for his theoretical system of
personalistic psychology wherein he ordered his mani fold research, and which, in turn, he
incorporated within his comprehensive philosophic doctrine of Critical Personalism.

Stern's life- in spite of his last five troubled years of exile was remarkable for its
orderliness of purpose. Already at the age of nineteen he had planned the intellectual road
that he would travel, and, never doubting, he pursued it to the dayof his death.' His every act
seemed an efficient expression of his dominant purpose. He worked eagerly, without lost
motion, keeping throughout his lifetime a distinctive boyish zeal and optimism. His own
enthusiasm made him an effective teacher,and his well-ordered life was reflected in the high
morale ofthe two institutes thathe directed.

Born on April 29, 1871, in Berlin, (Louis) William Stern lived in that city until he was
twenty-five years of age. In his third semester in the University he began to study with
Ebbinghaus, a fact which decided his training and his career. Yet the influence of Lazarus
and of Paulsen, with whom he likewise studied, led him to an early decision that he must
transcend the naturalistic views of Ebbinghaus and work out for himself a fuller and less
limited conception of proper scope of psychological science. Even in his doctoral
dissertation, Die Analogie im volkstumlichen Denken (1893), he attempted a synthesis of
cultural and experimental science, blending, asit were, the teachings of Lazarus and of
Ebbinghaus

Before going to Breslau as Privat Dozent in 1897 at the invitation of Ebbing

haus who had moved there in 1894 Stern worked for five years upon his experi
mental monograph, Psychologie der Veranderungsaufassung (1898). In this workwe find an
account of his invention, the Tonvariator, and likewise one of the earliest
discussions of the 'conscious present.' Treating the perception of change in manysense
modalities, the work foreshadows, though none too clearly, the purely phenomenological
descriptions of the Gestalt school. It begins to break with the 'constancy hypothesis' and may
fairly be ranked as an early expression of the Struffitur begrig.
 Yet, in this work the interpretation of the nature of structure is lacking. The author
only vaguely felt the need for a substantial agent which he might designateas the cause and
the carrier of perceptual change. The Person was not yet discovered.The logical completion
of this early monograph was not reached until thirty-seven years later in his paper, Raum und
Zeit vls personale Dimensionen (1935).

Before his promotion in Breslau to the post of ausserordentlicher Profevor in 1907,

Stern manifested his originality to its fullest extent. The first seven years of this century were
for him a period of true genius. In rapid succession there appeared his pioneering books and
monographs in five virgin fields of psychology.

(1) Oberpsychologie der individuellen Digerenzen was published in 1900, and in it

the author declared, fulsomely perhaps but none the less prophetically, that individuality
wouldbe the problem of the Twentieth Century. The book was completely rewritten in
1911 under its more familiar title, Die dilferentielle Psychologie.

(2) Zur Psychologie der Aussvge appeared in 1902, followed by two volumes of the
Beitrage zur Psychologie der Avssage. It is interesting to note that his last public lecture
deliveredin New York City in December 1937 dealt with this same problem in relation to trial
procedure at law.

(3) The child studies likewise began at this time. Children'sinterest in their school
work, their manner of reporting and the accuracy of their testimony first engaged his
attention. There followed soon an account of the case of Helen Keller, and the two famous
monographic studies based upon observation ofhis three children, written in collaboration
with his wife, Die Kindersprache (1907) and Errinerung, Aussage und Luge in der ersten
Kindhett (1908).

(4) Appliedpsychology was christened and presented to the psychological public in a

brochure entitled Angewandte Psychologie (1903). In this publication he likewise advanced
the concept of psychotechnics (eleven years before Munsterberg appropriated it and brought
it to fame). In 1906 (with the help of his student Otto Lipmann) Stern founded the Institut fur
angewandte Psychologie in Berlin and shortly thereafter the Zettschrift fur angewandte
Psychologie (1907). Stern remained co-director of the Institut until 1916 and co-editor of the
journal until 1933.
 (5) In 1900 he began to work on the foundations of his Critical Personalism, choosing
definitely in that year the title for his first volume and doing much of the writing. His first
philosophical publication (1903) was an article considering the second law of
thermodynamics in its significance for mental science, controverting the pessimistic
deductions that Von Hartmann had drawn. To the same period belongs the first publication of
his system, Volume 1 of Person und Sache, Ableitung und Grundlehre (1906).

Thus between the ages of 29 and 35, while still a Privat Dozent, Stern fashioned
with marked sureness of touch new views and new methods in four important departments of
psychology differential, forensic, child, and applied; and at the sametime accomplished the
initial, and therefore most creative, portion of his theoretical work.

His work in child psychology, for which he is best known in America, soon grew
beyond the bounds of the diary method. He became interested in more exact methods of
study, and undertook to introduce into Germany the new movement of intelligenc testing.

His influential book, Die psychologischen Methoden der Intelligenzprufung und deren
Anwendung an Schulkindern (1912) was twice later rewritten. It was in this work that the
concept and first formulation of the I.Q. were advanced. Soon followed another notable book,
written from the normative and developmental point of view, Psychologie der fruben
Kindheit bis zum sechsten Lebensiahre ( 1914). This volume found its way into several
editions both in German and in English. In 1915 Ernst Meumann died in Hamburg. Stern
immediately became his successor as editor of the Zeitschrift fur padagogische Psychologie,
and in 1916 hissuccessor as professor of philosophy, psychology and pedagogy at the
Kolonialinstitut and director of the psychological laboratory that Meumann had founded.
After the war the demand for new universities, caused by the return of the soldiers, led to
the transformation of the colonial institute into a full^fledged university.

In this transformation Stern himself played a strategic part by first inaugurating

informal and private courses for the returned soldiers. At Hamburg the interest in child
psychology spread in a practical direction, partlyto satisfy the demands of the local school
system. Valuable researches are to be foundin the Hambu1^ger Arbeiten zur
Begabungsforschung. The Institute soon becamea well-known center for research in
educational and vocational psychology. All thewhile fruitful researches in psychotechnics,
legal psychology and experimental psychology were continuing In 1925-1928 Stern gave
considerable attention to the studyof puberty and adolescence,
 planning to extend his treatment of child psychology
through these ages. Several miscellaneous papers mark this period in addition to the
monograph, Anfange der Reifezeit (1925), containing a psychological analysis and
commentary on the diaries of a boy from his twelfth to his fifteenth year.

This work takes on special interest when the reader comes to realize that the
anonymous writer of the diaries and the commentator are one and the same person. Stern as
boy and Stern as man were too much alike to make complete disguise possible!The story of
the Hamburg Institute (1916-1933) is told by Stern himself in four reports. The last is an
ominous Schlussbericht (1933), a hastily written, but as ever orderly and workmanlike report,
winding up the affairs of an active, democratic, and renowned center of psychological
research.The story of his last five years serves best of all to reveal his character. His first
asylum was in Holland where he worked doggedly on his last and most comprehensive
volume, Allgemeine Psychologie auf personalistischer Grundlage. Unable to issue it in
Germany, he found for it a Dutch publisher (1935). With this writing completed, he Joined
the trek of exiled German scholars to America, accepting a positionas lecturer and later as
professor at Duke University (1934-1938). Though he had visited America twice before
(once for the celebrated conference at Clark in 1909, and a second time for the IXth
International Congress at New Haven in 1929),

he spoke little English and was entirely unfamiliar with American educational
practices. Courageously, he and his gifted wife, who was his close collaborator since their
marriage in 1899, set to work to master a new language and a new way of life. Besides
teaching at Duke he gave occasional lectures in Eastern colleges and taught in the Harvard
summer school in 1936 He held two honorary degrees from American educational institutions
(Clark, 1909 and Wittenberg, 1928).

America had been good to him, and so with bright prospects here he undertook the
task of refashioning his personal and professional life. His chief desire was to introduce
personalistic psychology into America, to counteract, as he said, the "pernicious" influence of
his earlier invention, the I.Q. In February 1938 he was deeply gratified by the appearance in
America of the translation of his comprehensive text, General Psychology from the
Personalistic Standpoint. For his next work he planned a new volume on child psychology.
Suddenly, in the night of March 27, his work was ended, his prospects over. He died, without
warning, of coronary occlusion.
 Stern had the completest confidence in psychology, never doubting its firm position
among the sciences nor its practical value for mankind. He had equal confidence in his own
mission as a leader in theoretical and applied work. Consistent with this self-confidence were
his ease and dignity of manner and his fluency and lucidity of expression. These qualities,
combined with the vivacity and enthusiasm of which I have spoken, gave him a prominent
place in public gatherings. He was a gifted conciliator. When tempers were frayed in debate,
when awkward pauses followed an awkward scene, or when the occasion called for friendly
remarks, it was he who could be relied upon for the right word easily spoken. Though fully
conscious of his prerogatives as a German professor, and vocal about the merits of his own
work, he was at the same time responsive to the thought of others and patient and kind in all
his personal relations.

Elsewhere I have written an exposition and critique of the personalistic system

as set forth in his final book.S In this brief memorial sketch I shall not enter againinto the
subject. It should, however, be pointed out that, unlike many philosopherpsychologists, Stern
held to the end of his life his interest in the detailed problems ofgeneral psychology. His
philosophical work may be said to have been completed withthe publication of his Fertlehre
(1924) or perhaps with the short volume, Stxdienzur Personwissenschaft (1930). In his last
years he returned (with only a slightlyrelaxed grasp) to the finer details of general
psychological analysis. His final textcovers much the same ground as any modern text. The
difference, however, lies inits tireless locating of every fragment and fact within its proper
personalistic niche.

For him all diiculties were resolved in the Person. This concept, and this
conceptalone, he thought, could provide the substantiality, the causality, and the
individualityrequired in every mature psychological analysis.

It troubled him relatively little that his formulations ran counter to the trend of
the times, particularly in American thought. Intellectually he lived largely in a worldof his
own making, and he believed so intensely in the liberating powers of personalistic thought
that he had faith in its ultimate acceptability to others. He simplycould not believe that
psychologists would dwell for long within the narrow cellsthat they had created for
themselves by a prior act of freedom. Any system otherthan personalistic, he felt, makes a
travesty of the very mind that created it. Thinking in this vein Stern became a monumental
defender of an unpopular cause. Andwhat of that? he would ask. Are there not fashions and
fashions in psychologicaltheory? The personalistic way of thought will yet have its day, and
its day willbe long and bright.