Tag: Parapsychologist

On This Day … 13 May [2022]

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People (Births)

  • 1895 – Nandor Fodor, Hungarian-American psychologist, parapsychologist, and author (d. 1964).

People (Deaths)

  • 2013 – Joyce Brothers, American psychologist, author, and actress (b. 1927).

Nandor Fodor

Nandor Fodor (13 May 1895 to 17 May 1964) was a British and American parapsychologist, psychoanalyst, author and journalist of Hungarian origin.

Fodor, who was at one time Sigmund Freud‘s associate, wrote on subjects like prenatal development and dream interpretation, but is credited mostly for his magnum opus, Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science, first published in 1934. Fodor was the London correspondent for the American Society for Psychical Research (1935-1939). He worked as an editor for the Psychoanalytic Review and was a member of the New York Academy of Sciences.[

Joyce Brothers

Joyce Diane Brothers (20 October 1927 to 13 May 2013) was an American psychologist, television personality, advice columnist, and writer.

She first became famous in 1955 for winning the top prize on the American game show The $64,000 Question. Her fame from the game show allowed her to go on to host various advice columns and television shows, which established her as a pioneer in the field of “pop (popular) psychology”.

Brothers is often credited as the first to normalize psychological concepts to the American mainstream. Her syndicated columns were featured in newspapers and magazines, including a monthly column for Good Housekeeping, in which she contributed for nearly 40 years. As Brothers quickly became the “face of psychology” for American audiences, she often appeared in various television roles, usually as herself. From the 1970s onward, she also began to accept fictional roles that parodied her “woman psychologist” persona. She is noted for working continuously for five decades across various genres. Numerous groups recognised Brothers for her strong leadership as a woman in the psychological field and for helping to destigmatise the profession overall.

On This Day … 17 May

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Events

  • 1990 – The General Assembly of the World Health Organisation (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.

People (Deaths)

  • 1964 – Nandor Fodor, Hungarian-American psychologist and parapsychologist (b. 1895).

Nandor Fodor

Nandor Fodor (13 May 1895 to 17 May 1964 in New York City, New York) was a British and American parapsychologist, psychoanalyst, author and journalist of Hungarian origin.

Fodor was born in Beregszász, Hungary. He received a doctorate in law from the Royal Hungarian University of Science in Budapest. He moved to New York to work as a journalist and to Britain in 1929 where he worked for a newspaper company.

Fodor was one of the leading authorities on poltergeists, haunting and paranormal phenomena usually associated with mediumship. Fodor, who was at one time Sigmund Freud’s associate, wrote on subjects like prenatal development and dream interpretation, but is credited mostly for his magnum opus, Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science, first published in 1934. Fodor was the London correspondent for the American Society for Psychical Research (1935-1939). He worked as an editor for the Psychoanalytic Review and was a member of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Fodor in the 1930s embraced paranormal phenomena but by the 1940s took a break from his previous work and advocated a psychoanalytic approach to psychic phenomena. He published sceptical newspaper articles on mediumship, which caused opposition from spiritualists.

Among the subjects he closely studied was the case of Gef the talking mongoose.

On This Day … 09 January

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People (Births)

  • 1879 – John B. Watson, American psychologist and academic (d. 1958).

People (Deaths)

  • 2012 – William G. Roll, German-American psychologist and parapsychologist (b. 1926).

John B. Watson

John Broadus Watson (09 January 1878 to 25 September 1958) was an American psychologist who popularized the scientific theory of behaviourism, establishing it as a psychological school. Watson advanced this change in the psychological discipline through his 1913 address at Columbia University, titled Psychology as the Behaviourist Views It. Through his behaviourist approach, Watson conducted research on animal behaviour, child rearing, and advertising, as well as conducting the controversial “Little Albert” experiment and the Kerplunk experiment. He was also the editor of Psychological Review from 1910 to 1915. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Watson as the 17th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

William G. Roll

William G. Roll (03 July 1926 to 09 January 2012) was an American psychologist and parapsychologist on the faculty of the Psychology Department of the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia. Roll is most notable for his belief in poltergeist activity. He coined the term “recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis” (RSPK) to explain poltergeist cases. However, RSPK was never accepted by mainstream science and sceptics have described Roll as a credulous investigator.