Boris Sidis
Boris Sidis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 12, 1867 |
| Died | October 24, 1923(aged 56) |
| Nationality | Ukrainian, American |
| Education | Harvard University(BA,MA,PhD,MD) |
| Spouse | Sarah Mandelbaum |
| Children | 2, includingWilliam |
Boris Sidis(/ˈsaɪdɪs/;October 12, 1867 – October 24, 1923) was a Ukrainian-AmericanPsychopathologist,psychologist,physician,psychiatrist,andphilosopher of education.Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and theJournal of Abnormal Psychology.He was the father ofchild prodigyWilliam James Sidis.Boris Sidis eventually opposed mainstreampsychologyandSigmund Freud,and thereby died ostracized. He was married to a maternal aunt ofClifton Fadiman,the American intellectual.
Born in the Russian Empire, Sidis emigrated to the U.S. to escape political persecution. According toAmy Wallace,he was imprisoned for two years. Sidis fled thepogromswith his wife and children. He proceeded to complete four degrees atHarvard Universityand sought to provide insight into why people behave as they do. Sidis died in 1923, age 56.
Early life
[edit]Boris Sidis was born on October 12, 1867, inBerdychiv,toJewishparents.[1]Boris emigrated to theU.S.in 1887 to escape political persecution. Due to theMay Laws,he was imprisoned for at least two years, according toWilliam James Sidis' biographer,Amy Wallace.He later credited his ability to think to this longsolitary confinement.[1]His wife, Sarah Mandelbaum Sidis, M.D., and her family fled thepogromsabout 1889.
Career and views
[edit]Boris completed four degrees at Harvard (aB.A.,M.A.,Ph.D.andM.D.)[2]and studied underWilliam James.He was influential in the early 20th century, known for pioneering work inpsychopathology(founding the New York State Psychopathic Institute and theJournal of Abnormal Psychology),hypnoid/hypnotic states,andgroup psychology.He is also noted for vigorously applying the principles ofDarwinian evolutionto the study of psychology.
He vehemently opposedWorld War I,viewing war as a social disease, and denigrated the widely held concept ofeugenics.He sought to provide insight into why people behave as they do, particularly in cases of a mob frenzy or religious mania. With the publication of his bookNervous Ills: Their Cause and Cure[2]in 1922, he summarized much of his previous work in diagnosing, understanding and treatingnervous disorders.He sawfearas an underlying cause of much human mental suffering and problematic behavior.
Personal life
[edit]Sidis married Sarah Mandelbaum by whom he had 2 children.Williamborn on April 1, 1898, and Bessie born on February 12, 1908.
Sidis applied his own psychological approaches to raising William in whom he wished to promote a high intellectual capacity. After receiving much publicity for his childhood feats, he came to live an eccentric life and died in relative obscurity. Sidis himself deridedintelligence testingas "silly, pedantic, absurd, and grossly misleading."[3]
Sidis died on October 24, 1923, at the age of 56.
Partial bibliography
[edit]- The Psychology of Suggestion: A Research into the Subconscious Nature of Man and Society(1898)
- Psychopathological Researches: Studies in Mental Dissociation(1902)
- Multiple Personality: An Experimental Investigation into Human Individuality(1904)
- An Experimental Study of Sleep(1909)
- Philistine and Genius(1911)
- The Psychology of Laughter(1913)
- The Foundations of Normal and Abnormal Psychology(1914)
- Symptomatology, Psychognosis, and Diagnosis of Psychopathic Diseases(1914)
- The Causation and Treatment of Psychopathic Diseases(1916)
- The Source and Aim of Human Progress: A Study in Social Psychology and Social Pathology(1919)
- Nervous Ills: Their Cause and Cure(1922)
See also
[edit]- Ira Van Gieson(1866–1913), a collaborator
Notes
[edit]- ^Wallace, Amy (1986).The prodigy: a biography of William James Sidis, America's greatest child prodigy.New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.ISBN0-525-24404-2.
- ^"Harvard alumni directory / compiled by the Harvard Alumni Directory, an office of Harvard University 1910".HathiTrust.Retrieved2023-10-19.
- ^Foundations of Normal and Abnormal psychologyat sidis.net
- ^Sidis' birthplace is commonly listed as Kiev. However, a biographical note from his daughtersidis.netsays he was born in "Berditchev,"a small town about 150 km SW of Kiev.
- ^His writings are available atsidis.net
References
[edit]- Wallace, Amy,The prodigy: A biography of William James Sidis, America's greatest child prodigy,New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. 1986.ISBN0-525-24404-2
- "Boris Sidis."Dictionary of American biography base set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928–1936.Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005.galenet.galegroup
- SeeExternal Linksfor source of much of the details of Sidis's life from unpublished archive documents by his wife and daughter.
External links
[edit]
- 1867 births
- 1923 deaths
- 20th-century American psychologists
- American psychiatrists
- American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
- Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
- Jewish American scientists
- Jewish physicians
- Psychiatrists
- People from Berdychiv
- People from Kiev Governorate
- Ukrainian Jews
- Jews from the Russian Empire
- Harvard Medical School alumni
- Harvard College alumni
- Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
- 20th-century atheists