The historiography of psychology has highlighted how in Italy experts both from the field of philosophy and above all from that of medicine have contributed to the foundation of scientific psychology. The "project of experimental psychology" took shape in the second half of the nineteenth century, thanks especially to the work of physiologists, neurophysiologists, neurohistologists, psychiatrists, and anthropologists, such as Tamburini, Seppilli, Luciani, Golgi, Buccola, Ferrari, Morselli, Mosso, Kiesow, etc. These experts in their various fields were all involved in the attempt to redefine psychology as a natural science on a par with the other scientific disciplines and, therefore, to identify and delimit its proper object of study, while consequently developing its relative "quantitative" methods with reference to those of psychophysics, psychophysiology, and psycochronometry. This attempt developed particularly in Reggio Emilia and in Turin. In the San Lazzaro Mental Hospital of Reggio Emilia directed by Augusto Tamburini, there was an important cultural movement regarding research and training, which culminated in Gabriele Buccola's systematic experimental research on reaction times. In Turin, instead, the presence of the psychiatrist Enrico Morselli and the physiologist Angelo Mosso favoured the development of a Wundtian-style experimental psychology. The type of investigations conducted in these research centres reflects the interests of their authors, but it also reveals their common objective of founding a new psychological discipline that would have "scientific" characteristics.
The "Project of Experimental Psychology" Developed in Italy by Neurophysiologists and Psychiatrists
BONGIORNO, VINCENZO
2006-01-01
Abstract
The historiography of psychology has highlighted how in Italy experts both from the field of philosophy and above all from that of medicine have contributed to the foundation of scientific psychology. The "project of experimental psychology" took shape in the second half of the nineteenth century, thanks especially to the work of physiologists, neurophysiologists, neurohistologists, psychiatrists, and anthropologists, such as Tamburini, Seppilli, Luciani, Golgi, Buccola, Ferrari, Morselli, Mosso, Kiesow, etc. These experts in their various fields were all involved in the attempt to redefine psychology as a natural science on a par with the other scientific disciplines and, therefore, to identify and delimit its proper object of study, while consequently developing its relative "quantitative" methods with reference to those of psychophysics, psychophysiology, and psycochronometry. This attempt developed particularly in Reggio Emilia and in Turin. In the San Lazzaro Mental Hospital of Reggio Emilia directed by Augusto Tamburini, there was an important cultural movement regarding research and training, which culminated in Gabriele Buccola's systematic experimental research on reaction times. In Turin, instead, the presence of the psychiatrist Enrico Morselli and the physiologist Angelo Mosso favoured the development of a Wundtian-style experimental psychology. The type of investigations conducted in these research centres reflects the interests of their authors, but it also reveals their common objective of founding a new psychological discipline that would have "scientific" characteristics.
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