Münsterberg's Photoplays - continued...

Summary

The photographs of Münsterberg's labs in Freiburg and at Harvard are important sources for writing the history of the "Experimentalization of Life." They illustrate a decisive shift in psychological research practices: from a cognitive and/or idealist "Physiological Psychology" in the sense of Wundt to the pragmatist and/or functional "Science of Mental Life" as advocated by James and others. Münsterberg skillfully used these photographs as a powerful means for depicting his laboratories in various contexts and for different purposes – from his private correspondence to the public at large. Given their multiple uses in catalogs, exhibition rooms, and popular articles one could say that they have "a live of their own" – similar to the scientific instruments themselves.

Münsterberg 1893	World Fair 1893	Nichols 1893	Harvard Archives