CHAPTER 2: HISTORY OF

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Historical Roots

■ Individuals that altered the field of clinical psychology and began viewing mental
illness as treatable—Pinel, Tuke, Todd, Dix

– Philippe Pinel. A French physician who was shocked by the senseless brutality that
was custom in 19th century mental hospitals. He managed to get himself appointed
head of the asylum at Bicetre.
– Williiam Tuke. He raised funds to open the York Retreat, a residential treatment
center where the mentally ill would always be cared for with kindness, dignity, and
decency.
– Eli Todd. Successfully developed The Retreat in Hartford for the mentally ill.
– Dorothea Dix. She campaigned for better facilities for the mentally ill.
The Beginnings (1850-1899)
Initial emphasis focused on the youth population of children and adolescents who
were unable to functionally adapt to society.

Francis Galton. An Englishman who devoted a great deal of application of

quantitative methods to understanding differences among people. He established an
anthropometric laboratory in 1882.

Lightner Witmer. He founded the current model of treatment by forming the first
psychological clinic in 1896 and a journal called the Psychological Clinic.

James McKeen Cattell. Turned his attention to reaction time differences among
people, coined the term mental tests.

Emil Kraepelin. Father of Descriptive Psychiatry. He divided mental illness into

those types determined by exogenous factors (curable) and those caused by
endogenous factors (incurable).
The Advancement of the Modern Era (1900-1919)

Alfred Binet. He was convinced that the key to the study of individual differences was
the notion of norms and deviations from those norms. He created the first Binet-
Simon scale in 1905.

Carl Jung. He developed word-associations methods in 1905 to attempt to uncover

unconscious material in patients.

Charles Spearman. Offered the concept of a general intelligence that he was termed
g.

David Wechsler. He published the Weschler scales which designed to measure

intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents.
World War II and Beyond (1940-Present)

– Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is an objective self-report test

whose major function seemed to be attaching psychiatric levels to patients.
– 1952. The original DSM was published by the American Psychiatric Association.
– 1968. DSM II is published.
– 1970s. Rise of behavioral assessment.
– 1980. DSM III is published. It provided specific diagnostic criteria and also
introduced a multiaxial system.
– 1994. DSM IV is published.
– 2013. DSM V is published.
INTERVENTIONS: Where did it begin?
(1850-1899)
– Emil Kraepelin’s focus was on the classification of psychoses.
– Jean Charcot is best known today for his work on hypnosis and hysteria.
– Breuer and Freud published Studies on Hysteria. Their collaboration served as
the launching pad for psychoanalysis.
Between the Wars (1920-1939)
– Psychoanalysis was devoted to the treatment of adults and was
practiced almost exclusively by analysts whose basic training was in
medicine.
– Alfred Adler’s ideas were enscosed in American clinics that dealt
with children’s problems.
– Anna Freud described a method of play therapy derived from
psychoanalytic principles.
– Frederick Allen introduced the technique of “passive therapy” which
will give way to client-centered therapy.
World War II and Beyond (1940-Present)

– Wartime experience whetted the appetites of psychologists for

greater responsibility in the mental health field.
– John Dollard and Neal Miller published Personality and
Psychotherapy.
– Carl Rogers published client-centered therapy in 1951. It was the
first major alternative to psychoanalytic approach.
– Fritz Perls introduced Gestalt Therapy.
– Viktor Frankl talked about logotherapy and its relationship to
existential theory.
– Albert Ellis explained his Rational Emotive Therapy, an important
forerunner of cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Psychotherapy
■ Psychotherapy is the primary activity of clinical psychologists today.
■ In the mid-20th century, when psychotherapy rose to a more prominent
place in clinical psychology, the psychodynamic approach to therapy
dominated.
■ In the 1950s and 1960s, for example, behaviorism surfaced as a
fundamentally different approach to human beings and their behavioral or
emotional problems.
■ In 1960s, Humanistic (or “client-centered”) therapy also flourished.
■ Most recently, interest in cognitive therapy, with its emphasis on logical
thinking as the foundation of psychological wellness, has intensified
■ The roots of clinical psychology can be traced to pioneering efforts in the
late 1700s
and 1800s by William Tuke, Philippe Pinel, Eli Todd, Dorothea Dix, and
others to
treat the mentally ill in a humane rather than punitive way.
■ It was formally founded by Lightner Witmer.
■ Early efforts to diagnose mental problems were quite rudimentary, but the
work of Emil Kraepelin and others eventually led to more sophisticated
diagnostic classification systems.
■ The assessment of intelligence has evolved from the earliest work of
Alfred Binet, David Wechsler, and others to the current editions of their
tests, such as the Stanford-Binet and the WAIS, WISC, and WPPSI.

■ Early attempts to assess personality were primarily projective tests,

such as the Rorschach inkblot method and the Thematic Apperception
Test. Those
tests were soon followed by objective personality tests such as the
MMPI.
Study Questions:

■ How essential were the contributions of William Tuke,

Philippe Pinel, Eli Todd, and Dorothea Dix to the creation of
the field of clinical psychology? Would the field exist today
without their work?