Franz Samelson (1923-2015)

Franz Samelson, social psychologist and historian of psychology, died in Manhattan, Kansas, on March 16, 2015. Franz joined the Psychology Department at Kansas State University (KSU) in 1957 and rose through the ranks to retire as Professor in 1990. At KSU he taught social psychology informed by his dislike of narrow empiricism and a growing interest in historical topics. The history of social psychology, Franz believed, was distorted by post-World War II desires for value-free empiricism. Gordon Allport, he showed, created an origin myth for the field that suited his values, obscuring the ideological diversity of his predecessors. Turning to intelligence and intelligence testing, Franz's research again altered the scholarly landscape. Although it was long believed that psychologists' testing in World War I demonstrated the usefulness of their young science, Franz revealed this to be another disciplinary myth. Next, Franz showed that a popular history of IQ testing (Stephen Jay Gould's Mismeasure of Man) was distorted by the author's liberal enthusiasm-again showing his willingness to take on the political left as well as the right.