The perils of a public intellectual - George W. Hartmann - Experts in the Service of Social Reform: SPSSI, Psychology, and Society, 1936-1996

Journal of Social Issues, Spring, 1998 by Benjamin Harris

Defenceless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair Show an affirming flame.

- W. H. Auden, "September 1, 1939"

When the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) met at Stanford University in September 1939, it was addressed by its chairman, George W. Hartmann. Only 35 years old, Hartmann was already a leading advocate of SPSSI's founding ethos: applying psychological expertise to social problems. In his chairman's address, Hartmann embraced this task and called for a more socially relevant psychology with which to work. Currently, he noted, "psychology has the most precise body of information concerning matters of little importance and the least to offer in fields that concern men most" (Hartmann, 1939c, p. 574). As an alternative, he called on SPSSI members to develop a "science of society by which both science and society can be 'saved'" (p. 567).

As the academic year was beginning in September 1939, there was no lack of social problems needing resolution. Internationally, the mid-1930s had seen fascist governments take power across Europe. On the same day that Hartmann spoke, the Second World War began as the German Army invaded Poland. Domestically, the U.S. economy was still recovering from the Depression. To the liberal membership of SPSSI, interrelated concerns included unemployment, industrial conflict, and the rise of domestic, neo-fascist organizations (Finison, 1976, 1979, 1986).

Although he is little remembered today, in the year of his SPSSI chairmanship George Hartmann had achieved a unique combination of public visibility and professional authority. Moreover, 1939 was the year in which his influence and fame were at their peak. Despite his youth, Hartmann had already served as program chair for the Eastern Psychological Association, was coeditor of SPSSI's first yearbook, was a leading member of the New York Teachers Union, and was editor of Social Frontier - the journal of the liberal wing of the progressive education movement ("School Union," 1939). He was the author of dozens of articles in prominent psychology and education journals, and had written Gestalt Psychology, a leading guide to that new school of thought (Hartmann, 1935/1974). Together with John L. Childs, Harold Rugg, R. L. Thorndike, and Goodwin Watson, he taught in the nation's largest teacher training program, Teachers College's Foundations of Education (Cremin, Shannon, & Townsend, 1954).

Soon, these professional successes of Hartmann's were replaced by failure. Within 5 years of his chairman's address to SPSSI, he had been fired from both Teachers College and Harvard University and was hospitalized for acute depression. Although he won back his Teachers College job after the war ended, the postwar years saw him become professionally isolated. In 1950 he moved to Roosevelt College in Chicago, further reducing his prestige and influence. In 1955 he committed suicide on the last day of the academic year ("Mayor Candidate," 1955).

Indicative of the reversal of Hartmann's fortunes as a public intellectual were his two interactions with Martin Dies' infamous House Un-American Activities Committee. The first featured Hartmann as a friendly witness, testifying about his resignation from the Teachers Union in an anti-Communist protest (Hartmann, 1939a). Five years later he appeared in absentia, represented by his correspondence files as director of the anti-war group Peace Now.

In 1939, Hartmann was addressed as "Doctor" and treated with respect by Dies and his colleagues. In return, he suggested that the committee's anti-Communist campaign could be "an educational service of commendable magnitude" to the American public if it would only master the relevant "research scholarship" (U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, 1939; Hartmann, 1940a, p. 332).

In 1944, Hartmann thought his psychopolitical views would again receive a fair heating from Dies and in "the national court of public opinion" (Hartmann, 1944b, p. 1). Instead, his expert opinions were denounced as academic rationalizations for Nazism in countless newspapers, national magazines, and radio programs. In the report of Dies' committee, Hartmann was portrayed as both misguided and ridiculous - a fatal combination for a public figure. According to Dies, Hartmann and his Peace Now Movement were un-American, seditious, and treasonous; his only redeeming feature was a lack of influence on the public (U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, 1944).

In the postwar United States, George Hartmann failed to regain his status as a widely respected psychological authority. At a time when psychology was booming, Hartmann found himself increasingly isolated from the forces creating opportunities for others. Although some of this isolation was caused by dispositional factors - factors which had earlier helped him gain fame - much of it related to the changing nature of psychological expertise. Accordingly, the rise and fall of George Hartmann's career offers both positive and negative illustrations of the forces transforming the field of psychology at midcentury.