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A history of psychology in autobiography volume III.Otto Klemm.

A history of psychology in autobiography volume III.: Otto Klemm. As a psychologist I have often enough reflected upon myself, yet this is a different sort of reflection. Now I am about to contemplate past experiences not in order to apprehend them in themselves, but for the sake of fitting them into the total picture of an individual life. The first connected realm of facts that presented itself to me was the kingdom of stars. When I was 15 I received a gift of a three-inch spyglass with a lense of 80x magnifying power, and with the help of wood and paper constructed a telescope. Armed with the physics of the ninth school year I began to make observations and concoct theories. I was happy when a semi-popular astronomical journal printed some of my productions. But from this astronomical hobby arose a decisive turn of mind. The joy which I had found in scientific insight was perturbed by the philosophical deductions especially of the materialistic school of thinkers. In disgust--and flying to the contrary extreme, as is usually the case in such adolescent phases of development--I broke off my astronomical observations. The critical philosophy made a profound impression on me. Now it was no longer just philosophy of nature that confronted me, but from my inmost nature a philosophical passion broke forth. Filled with higher expectations than I have ever known in later life, I enrolled at the University at the age of 19. Did I choose the study of philosophy? No--certainly not--rather I was never faced with a moment's doubt of the fact that I must pursue it. At Munich, in my first semester in 1903, I came in contact with Th. Lipps, and for the first time the word psychology acquired a definite meaning for me. At Munich those who had registered as students of philosophy were obliged also to name their special subject. I felt somewhat disconcerted. For me, philosophy was a special study. Some older friends advised me to name psychology. So now I was a student of psychology. Whole nights long we sat in the Psychological Club and discussed the concepts of similarity and dissimilarity, the distinction between acts and non-acts, and other pairs of concepts that occur in phenomenological psychology, and carried on Lipps's dream of carrying out a reform of German psychology with headquarters at Munich. One thing struck my attention: the small collection of apparatus for experimental psychology, which stood unused and somewhat dust-covered in a corner of the seminar room. My scientifically trained eye kept turning to it. Here I felt the presence of a gap; through this gap I passed to another great field, that of experimental psychology as W. Wundt in Leipzig had conceived it. When, in 1904, I became a member of the Psychological Institute at Leipzig, I soon became aware of the long road that led from experimental details to those far theoretical horizons. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A history of psychology in autobiography volume III.Otto Klemm.

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Publisher
Clark University Press
Copyright
Copyright © 1936 American Psychological Association
Pages
153 –180
DOI
10.1037/11247-007
Publisher site
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Abstract

As a psychologist I have often enough reflected upon myself, yet this is a different sort of reflection. Now I am about to contemplate past experiences not in order to apprehend them in themselves, but for the sake of fitting them into the total picture of an individual life. The first connected realm of facts that presented itself to me was the kingdom of stars. When I was 15 I received a gift of a three-inch spyglass with a lense of 80x magnifying power, and with the help of wood and paper constructed a telescope. Armed with the physics of the ninth school year I began to make observations and concoct theories. I was happy when a semi-popular astronomical journal printed some of my productions. But from this astronomical hobby arose a decisive turn of mind. The joy which I had found in scientific insight was perturbed by the philosophical deductions especially of the materialistic school of thinkers. In disgust--and flying to the contrary extreme, as is usually the case in such adolescent phases of development--I broke off my astronomical observations. The critical philosophy made a profound impression on me. Now it was no longer just philosophy of nature that confronted me, but from my inmost nature a philosophical passion broke forth. Filled with higher expectations than I have ever known in later life, I enrolled at the University at the age of 19. Did I choose the study of philosophy? No--certainly not--rather I was never faced with a moment's doubt of the fact that I must pursue it. At Munich, in my first semester in 1903, I came in contact with Th. Lipps, and for the first time the word psychology acquired a definite meaning for me. At Munich those who had registered as students of philosophy were obliged also to name their special subject. I felt somewhat disconcerted. For me, philosophy was a special study. Some older friends advised me to name psychology. So now I was a student of psychology. Whole nights long we sat in the Psychological Club and discussed the concepts of similarity and dissimilarity, the distinction between acts and non-acts, and other pairs of concepts that occur in phenomenological psychology, and carried on Lipps's dream of carrying out a reform of German psychology with headquarters at Munich. One thing struck my attention: the small collection of apparatus for experimental psychology, which stood unused and somewhat dust-covered in a corner of the seminar room. My scientifically trained eye kept turning to it. Here I felt the presence of a gap; through this gap I passed to another great field, that of experimental psychology as W. Wundt in Leipzig had conceived it. When, in 1904, I became a member of the Psychological Institute at Leipzig, I soon became aware of the long road that led from experimental details to those far theoretical horizons. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Published: Dec 11, 2006

Keywords: Otto Klemm; autobiography; psychology; history

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