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Henry A. Murray




Henry A. Murray ( May 13 , 1893June 23 , 1988 )was an American Psychologist who taught for over 30 years at Harvard . He was founder of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and developed a theory of Personality based on "need" and "press". He also is developer of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) which is widely used by psychologists.


STUDIES


Henry Murray was born at New York in a wealthy family, with an older sister and a younger brother. At Harvard, he majored in History with a poor performance, but compensated with Football , Rowing and Boxing . At Columbia College he did much better in Medicine and completed M.D. and made as well an M.A. in Biology 1919. For the next two years he was an instructor in physiology at Harvard and 1927 he received his doctorate degree in Biochemistry at Cambridge. While at Cambridge, he met Carl Jung in Switzerland whom he described as "The first full blooded, spherical - and Goethian, I would say, intelligence I had ever met." He was analyzed by him and studied his works.


PROFESSIONAL CAREER


1927, at the age of 33, he became assistant director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic and 10 years later its director. in 1938 he published "Explorations in Personality" now a classic in psychology, where also the Thematic Apperception Test was described.

During World War II , he left Harvard and worked as Lieutenant Colonel for the Office Of Strategic Services (OSS) . Murray was interested in psychoanalysis and used his theories in the selection of OSS agents. Commissioned by OSS boss, William "Wild Bill" Donovan , in 1943 Professor Murray helped complete "'' Analysis Of The Personality Of Adolph Hitler ''." The report was done in collaboration with Psychoanalyst Walter C. Langer , Dr. Ernst Kris, New School for Social Research, and Dr. Bertram D. Lawin, New York Psychoanalytic Institute. The report used many sources to profile Hitler including a number of informants such as Ernst Hanfstaengl , Herman Rauschning , Princess Stephanie Von Hohenlohe , Gregor Strasser , Friedelinde Wagner , and Kurt Ludecke . The groundbreaking study was the pioneer of Offender Profiling and political psychology, today commonly used by many countries as part of assessing international relations.

In addition to predicting that if defeat for Germany was near, characteristics, and (b) from the fact that there were so many homosexuals in the Party during the early days and many continue to occupy important positions. It is probably true that Hitler calls Foerster "Bubi", which is a common nickname employed by homosexuals in addressing their partners."

Having returned to Harvard 1947, he lectured and established with others the Psychological Clinic Annex. Murray was a chief researcher at Harvard .

Alston Chase's book "Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist" tells of psychological experiments which Theodore Kaczynski had said he had undergone at Harvard under Henry Murray, and connects these experiences in a controversial thesis to his later career as Unabomber.

When he became emeritus professor at Harvard, he earned the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association Gold Medal Award for lifetime achievement from the American Psychological Foundation.

Murray died at the age of 95 from pneumonia.


WORKS


  • Murray, H. A. (1940). What should psychologists do about psychoanalysis? Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 35, 150–175.

  • OSS Assessment Staff. (1948). Assessment of men: Selection of personnel for the Office of Strategic Service. New York: Rinehart.



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