Abstract
The autobiography of Michael Wertheimer portrays the life of a young German immigrant to the United States during the 1930s. In many ways characteristic of the tens of thousands of European refugees who fled Germany after Hitler’s rise to power and the onset of Nazi atrocities, the Wertheimer family managed to make their way to Marienbad in Czechoslovakia and from there via Cherbourg, France to sail on the RMS Majestic to New York. What makes this particular family history of interest to readers of Perception is that Michael is the son of Max Wertheimer, one of the founders of Gestalt Psychology. The unfolding of Michael’s life is very much entangled with that of his father’s, especially in his formative years. Landing on Ellis Island in September 1933 together with his parents, his older brother and younger sister, the family took up residence in New Rochelle outside of New York City. Michael, then merely 6 years old, was placed into third grade in the Mayflower Elementary School of New Rochelle, where he quickly learned to master English. Father Max worked at the New School of Social Research in New York City. From there Michael attended Albert Leonard Junior High School in New Rochelle and afterwards Fieldston School in Bronxville, N.Y., together with his older brother Val. Michael’s father, Max Wertheimer, died suddenly of heart failure in October 1943, only 63 years in age. Under the mentorship of two prominent immigrant Gestalt psychologists and colleagues of his father, Wolfgang Köhler and Hans Wallach, Michael’s college years began at Swarthmore College in the spring of 1944. After graduation in 1947 at the young age of 20 years, Michael took up graduate school in experimental psychology at Johns Hopkins. The psychology department was then still strongly influenced by the behaviorist John B. Watson. Here, Michael received training in acoustical psychophysics under the supervision of Wendell Garner (joint publication of the work in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America in 1951). After his master’s degree, Michael was accepted into the doctoral degree program in experimental psychology at Harvard, where he was supervised by the famous psychophysicist S.S. Stevens, with Edwin Garrigues Boring and William Verplanck on the examining committee. His thesis involved the determination of perceptual thresholds for light sensation in the dark, auditory tone detection and mechanical pain thresholds, where he demonstrated that variations in these were not random. Although the results ran contrary to the ideas of his supervisor, Michael successfully defended his thesis in January 1952 at the age of 24 years. He was appointed assistant professor at Wesleyan College in Middleton Connecticut in the fall of that same year. He married Lavinia “Nan” Steele MacKaye in 1950. In Middleton, the first two of their three children were born. Michael goes on to describe several family-related events while at Wesleyan. In 1955 he and his young family move to Boulder Colorado, where he had been recently awarded a professorship in the Psychology Department. It is here the Michael would spend the rest of his academic career. His love for the outdoors and for alpine mountaineering could not be better satisfied than at the University of Colorado, Boulder, located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Michael recounts many personal details of his turbulent marriage with Nan that ended in divorce in 1963. After a “short-lived” marriage with the elementary school teacher of his son, Michael met Marilyn Schuman from the German department, whom he would marry in 1970. The remaining parts of the book describe Michael’s academic career achievements, sabbaticals on Hawaii and in Sweden, editorial work on journals such as Gestalt Theory and the German-language Zeitschrift der Psychologie, as well as his family life, birth of grandchildren and his move with Marilyn to a comfortable retirement community after becoming emeritus.
Overall, the book offers a personal account of the life of Michael Wertheimer. The text is supported by over 200 illustrations of persons, places, and events described therein. Reading this autobiography felt like sitting down with the author and going through his family albums from start to finish. Although his biography as such may not be unique, the path his academic career and personal life took, arriving at Ellis Island in the 1930s to academic success at various outstanding American universities, to life in a retirement community situated in the Rocky Mountains, is very much reflective of the stories of European wartime immigrants to the United States. Michael’s personal history is nicely interwoven with the history of American experimental psychology with a “Who’s Who” take on the pioneering figures of postwar academic psychology research in the USA.
Readers interested in Michael Wertheimer and his generation of American experimental psychologists will find this well written autobiography informative. The “ups and downs” of his personal life are portrayed in a clear chronological order. I would have liked to read more about the father, Max Wertheimer, but owing to his untimely death, Michael only shares his memories as a child with his father. It would have been interesting to read more about Michael’s formative years, his initial research activities and his academic achievements.
To be purchased for under 30 Euros for the Kindle version, the book is moderately priced for a volume distributed by Springer Verlag.