Harvard's Quixotic Pursuit of a New Science

Patrick L. Schmidt is an attorney and executive with diverse experience in Latin America and the Caribbean in the areas of renewable energy, finance, real estate, tourism, and infrastructure. He is the author of journal articles and commentary on international law and foreign policy issues including U.S. foreign aid, international human rights, internally displaced persons, and renewable energy in the Caribbean. Schmidt attended Harvard University as an undergraduate where he wrote on the topic of Harvard’s Department of Social Relations in his 1978 senior honors thesis in Harvard’s Department of Psychology and Social Relations, the successor to the Department of Social Relations. As part of his research, he interviewed 26 of the faculty members who played a role in the department’s history, including founders Talcott Parsons and Henry Murray, and critics in the Psychology Department, such as B.F. Skinner, who closely observed the rise and fall of Social Relations.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1Freud Arrives at Harvard: Disrupting the Disciplines

Chapter 2Word War II Changes Everything: Interdisciplinary Research Emerges

Chapter 3The Founding of the Department of Social Relations: A Determined Dean Acts

Chapter 4The First Five Years: A Golden Age but Integration Proves Elusive

Chapter 5The 1950s: A Decade of Disunity and Disappointment

Chapter 6The 1960s: Drugs and Departmental Drift

Chapter 7The Final Unraveling: Soc Rel 148-149 Disrupts and Sociology Departs

Chapter 8Conclusion and Summary

Index