Call for contributions (ESHHS, 2019): historical perspectives on mental capacities and psychological traits
Call for contributions: European Society for the History of the Human Sciences, 4-6 July 2019, Budapest.
Panel: Giftedness and feebleness under scrutiny: historical perspectives on the examination of mental capacities and psychological traits
The sessions seeks to understand how and why humans were classified into certain psychological categories such as “mentally abnormal”, “gifted”, “feeble” etc. Physicians, psychologists and pedagogues designed techniques to register psychological differences among schoolchildren and (young) adults to rank and classify them. This was done for several reasons, often to undertake groupings and to guide their education and professional training while adducing reasons of mental hygiene, eugenics, industrial and educational efficiency.
In this context the concept of “abnormality”, be this feebleness or giftedness, gained prominence. Although there was no scholarly agreement on how to define these terms, there was a consensus on why it was important: the feeble should be under surveillance while gifted children would require attention to foster the full development of their capacities. Thus, conceptions of feebleness and giftedness affected education and parenting.
Historical research has yet to explain what was the social role acquired by each concept and classification system at certain place and time and why mental abnormality (feebleness, giftedness or any other mental or personal trait) had acquired such a role within Western society during the last decades of the 19th and early 20thcentury.
We welcome presentations from the fields of the history of psychology, medicine or pedagogy dealing with topics such as mental testing, education for the feeble or the gifted, child prodigies, biotypologies, psychotechniques and professional guidance, and related areas.
If you are interested in joining the panel please contact Annette Mülberger (Annette.Mulberger@uab.cat) and Andrea Graus (andrea.graus@uantwerpen.be) before March 3.