Constructing Scientific Psychology: Karl Lashley's Mind-Brain Debates (review)

Nadine M. Weidman. Constructing Scientific Psychology: Karl Lashley's Mind-Brain Debates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. xix + 219 pp. Ill. $54.95.

This biography is the first study to appear of the famous neurobiologist and psychologist Karl S. Lashley. Nadine Weidman thoroughly analyzes the position of Lashley's neuropsychological scholarship within the context of the major debates that have occurred within psychology and neurology over the last sixty years: between the protagonists of behaviorism and psychoneurology, between environmentalists and hereditarians, and, within neurology, about reductionism, or whether science could account for the role of consciousness and free will in human behavior. Despite his earlier association with John B. Watson, Lashley has always been opposed to behaviorism. He emphasized the irreducible spontaneity of behavior and, as a neurologist, investigated the relationship between brain and behavior.

Weidman convincingly demonstrates that the above-mentioned fundamental disagreements helped shape psychological and neurological research and that, as a consequence, the major debates within these disciplines were impossible to resolve purely by empirical means. She also comprehensively discusses Lashley's mentors, the approaches within the various sciences that inspired his research, his main experimental techniques, and what have been viewed as his most important contributions to the field. In providing the histories of these theories and approaches, she transcends the disciplinary boundaries that are usually deferred to by historians of science--albeit not by scientists themselves. Lashley's interests intersected several disciplines--among them biology, neurology, and psychology, all of which he contributed to.

In the first part of the book, Weidman presents the main characteristics of Lashley's work. Lashley had often argued that laboratory research and experimentation were the only way to acquire knowledge, emphasizing time and again that his own work was purely scientific and devoid of any practical application. He also mistrusted theoretical constructs and made a point of debunking them. He postulated that mental functions were not localized in specific areas of the brain, but that all parts of the brain could perform mental functions when necessary. In his view, the brain functioned as an integrated whole; although this view is no longer held, it was accepted as based on meticulous research during Lashley's lifetime. Lashley always emphasized the spontaneity and autonomy of organisms and insisted that behavior could never accurately be predicted based on knowledge of external conditions. He believed that human intelligence was mostly inherited and was therefore not amenable to change.

After sketching Lashley's scientific ideas and contributions, Weidman commences her critical analysis of his life and work, describing him as extremely conservative, avoiding practical applications of his work owing to his strong antipathy to the reformist agendas of his colleagues. In his private correspondence with the behaviorist psychologist John B. Watson, he expressed extreme reservations about racial desegregation. Weidman postulates that Lashley's hard-headed scientific approach functioned as a front for his conservative political convictions.

Weidman's study is based on an extensive investigation of primary sources. She takes the actual ideas and theories published by scientists quite seriously and analyzes them in fine detail. Through the analysis of archival material, she has located Lashley within his most significant group of colleagues and co-workers. Although she is at times very critical, especially when she analyzes Lashley's personal correspondence (in which rather egregious comments appear), she is never reductionistic. This book is a conscientious biography of Lashley that provides a thorough perspective on the major debates in the history of psychology during the last century.

Hans Pols
Rutgers University

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