Medicine/Behavioral Science

Few figures have had so decisive and fundamental an influence on the course of modern cultural history as Sigmund Freud. Yet few figures also have inspired such sustained controversy and intense debate. Freud's legacy continues to be hotly contested, as demonstrated by the controversy attracted by this exhibition even before its opening. Our notions of identity, memory, childhood, sexuality, and, most generally, of meaning have been shaped in relation to--and often in opposition to--Freud's work. The exhibition examines Freud's life and his key ideas and their effect upon the twentieth century.

Bedlam: Custody Care and Cure 1247-1997 at the Museum of London until 15 March 1998. This exhibition tells the fascinating 750-year-old story of Bethlem Royal Hospital, popularly known as 'Bedlam'.

Bethlem is the world's oldest institution caring for people with mental disorders. It has been a part of London since 1247 and many people, rich and poor, have played a part in its history

Cheiron, named after the wise centaur of Greek myth, was formed in October 1968 to promote international cooperation and multidisciplinary studies in the history of the social and behavioral sciences. The society's aims are to:
(a) provide a broad perspective on contemporary scientific activities in order to counteract the narrow views of various disciplines and their interactions.
(b) broaden scientific perspective by close cooperation with scholars in other countries.
(c) strengthen and increase professionalism of scholarly research in the history of the behavioral and social sciences.

This collection is dedicated to the preservation of the history and apparatus from the early days of the Barnard College Psychology Department. Barnard College, a four-year women's college, was founded in 1889 and the first courses in psychology were offered in 1906 over the strenuous objections of many faculty and administrators who maintained that psychology was not a fitting topic for young women. We have digitized the documents and apparatus which have been stored in the departmental archives for nearly 100 years and placed them on the internet in a form that makes them accessible to historians and students. This museum was created in 1995 and, as time permits, more of this information will be digitized and made available.

In the following pages I shall demonstrate that there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that on the application of this technique every dream will reveal itself as a psychological structure, full of significance, and one which may be assigned to a specific place in the psychic activities of the waking state. Further, I shall endeavour to elucidate the processes which underlie the strangeness and obscurity of dreams, and to deduce from these processes the nature of the psychic forces whose conflict or cooperation is responsible for our dreams. This done, my investigation will terminate, as it will have reached the point where the problem of the dream merges into more comprehensive problems, and to solve these we must have recourse to material of a different kind.

Tycho Brahe was born on 14th December 1546 at the castle of Knutstorp in Scania
– which at that time was a province of Denmark. His parents, Otte Brahe and Beate Bille, belonged to the highest-ranked nobility in Denmark, and several of his relatives served the king as advisers and warriors. He was brought up by his paternal uncle Jörgen Brahe and his wife Inger Oxe at the castle of Tosterup. He spent much time with other relatives at the castle of Herrevadskloster.

Andrew Balfour was a native of Edinburgh, born on March 21st 1873, the son of Dr T A G Balfour, a well known practitioner in that city. At an early age Balfour established a reputation for being a man of many talents. During his student days he was a 6-foot-tall,14 stone boxer and rugby player who appeared for Scotland against England on many occasions. He was also a novelist. His first novel By Stroke of Sword , published in 1897, was a story of romance and adventure in the high seas and Spanish America. He also wrote To Arms (1898), Vengeance is Mine (1899), Cashiered and Other War Stories (1902) and The Golden Kingdom (1903). The last novel was founded upon his scientific knowledge of sleeping sickness. After graduating MB.,C.M. at Edinburgh in 1894, he joined his father's medical practice, but soon he realized that he had more inclination towards public health than to clinical practice. Thus he entered Cambridge University in 1885 and obtained the D.P.H. degree in 1887, followed by a M.D. degree for which he was awarded a gold medal for outstanding research work. Then he obtained a BSc in public health. The first tropical experience of Balfour was a typhoid camp in Pretoria during the period 1900-1901.

This exhibit, "From Quackery to Bacteriology: The Emergence of Modern Medicine in 19th Century America," traces the development of medicine through printed works: from heroic medicine at the beginning of the century to quackery movements, the experience of the Civil War, and ending with improvements in medical education and the formulation of the germ theory at century's end. Other topics covered in the exhibit include women's health, mental health, public health, and preventative medicine as advocated through physical fitness and nutrition.