How Canada's First Psychology Department Arose at McGill University

Canada's first official department of psychology came into existence at Montréal's McGill University in 1924. First chartered more than a century before, in 1821, McGill started teaching courses in "psychology" as early as 1871. Although McGill contributed two very early members to the American Psychological Association-John C. Murray and T. Wesley Mills-it was not until 1910 that it housed an experimental psychology laboratory, in the Department of Philosophy, opened by William D. Tait. Tait and two philosophers, William Caldwell and J. W. A. Hickson, worked contentiously side-by-side until the administration agreed, in 1924, to an autonomous Department of Psychology under Tait's leadership. Although the University of Toronto had founded a psychology laboratory two decades earlier than McGill had, the Montréal school founded a Department of Psychology, the first in Canada, more than two years before Toronto did. This article investigates the dynamics - intellectual, political, and personal - that led McGill to establish the first psychology department, as well as its early development, prior to the arrival of Donald Hebb. As is often the case with institutional change, the decision to separate psychology from philosophy was driven as much by the administration's desire to resolve long-standing fractious personal relations among the faculty as it was by any intellectual or disciplinary issues. Le premier département de psychologie officiel du Canada a vu le jour à l'Université McGill de Montréal en 1924. Affiliée pour la première fois plus d'un siècle auparavant, en 1821, McGill a commencé à donner des cours de « psychologie » dès 1871. Bien que McGill ait fourni deux membres très tôt à l'American Psychological Association - John C. Murray et T. Wesley Mills - ce n'est qu'en 1910 qu'elle a abrité un laboratoire expérimental de psychologie, au département de philosophie, inauguré par William D. Tait. M. Tait et deux philosophes, William Caldwell et J. W. A. Hickson, ont travaillé côte à côte de façon contentieuse jusqu'à ce que l'administration accepte, en 1924, un département autonome de psychologie sous la direction de M. Tait. Bien que l'Université de Toronto ait fondé un laboratoire de psychologie deux décennies plus tôt que McGill, l'école de Montréal a fondé un département de psychologie, le premier au Canada, plus de deux ans avant Toronto. Cet article examine la dynamique - intellectuelle, politique et personnelle - qui a conduit McGill à établir le