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Acknowledgements
Typically, once a project is started I continue to work on it until it has been completed. This book is different in that I have started and stopped work on this topic area several times over the past decade. Throughout this time period, so many individuals—too many to name each individually—contributed to this work in a variety of ways. My sincere thanks to the many unnamed individuals who have graciously given me their time and input over the years. Without your help, this book would not have been possible.
Special thanks are necessary to all of the library staff that have been remarkable in obtaining obscure documents and patiently answering what must have appeared to be silly questions by the author. In particular, the library staff at Adams State College (Alamosa, CO) where this project began, Medaille College (Buffalo, NY) my current employer (especially Andrew Yeager), and those in the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library system have my deepest gratitude. I also owe a special thanks to three former students (Myriah Koledin, Gregory Drakulic, & Robin Payne) who worked diligently obtaining vital historical documents at the very beginning of this project.
Also, thanks to Jerry Erion, Howard Reid, Anne Pfohl, and Natalie Fingerhut. All were kind enough to provide constructive feedback which greatly benefitted the final version of this book. Not to be forgotten, many thanks to both my sister and my mom for pitching in and obtaining important documents. Neither complained when I asked for “small” favors that saved me a great deal of time and effort. Likewise, thanks to Medaille College for granting me with a sabbatical leave which allowed me to focus on this book without any of the usual academic distractions.
Of course, thanks to both my wife Angela, and kids, Thomas and Kate, who provide the perfect environment for me when attempting to transform vague ideas into book form. My closest friends have always provided a forum for me to bounce my ideas off of. It should go without saying that the usual disclaimers apply to all of the above-mentioned individuals and organizations as none should be held responsible for the views that are ultimately the responsibility of the author. Last but certainly not least, I sincerely want to thank the reader for taking the time to select and I hope ultimately read this book. Without readers, this whole endeavor would have little purpose.
Footnotes
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[1] For readers who would like a more complete description of Dr. Benjamin’s discovery, see his A History of Psychology in Letters (2006). Likewise, for more details about the PRT, see Benjamin (1977) and Hardcastle (2000).
[2] For further reading, see Chapter 6, “The Cocaine Episode (1884-1887)” of Jones’ (1953) The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (Volume 1) available at the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/details/lifeandworkofsig007124mbp).
[3] Putnam’s family history is interesting, as an ancestor had made the trip from England to settle in the New World, and ultimately ended up in Salem, Massachusetts, home of the famous witchcraft trials in 1692. As Rosenzweig (1992, p. 204) has written, “in those trials a child named Ann Putnam was an important witness who later retracted her accusations. The writer has established that Dr. Putnam was a second cousin, several degrees removed, of Ann Putnam and her family.”
[4] Psychoanalysis would become “Americanized” by professionals and intellectuals. Interestingly, when the general public subsequently misinterprets and modifies Freudian theory, it is referred to by some historians as “vulgarization,” which certainly is not as nice a term as “Americanized” (Rieber, 1998).
[5] Eastman incorrectly notes that Hall first introduced Freud’s ideas to America at Clark University in 1910, when the year was 1909. This minor error was likely due to the fact that Freud’s lectures were published in 1910.
[6] See Benjamin and Dixon (1996) for further details and an interesting letter from a young lady who was seeking help from Dr. Freud to interpret her dream. Freud was generous enough to respond to her letter. This article makes a wonderful classroom exercise for professors as students can attempt to provide a Freudian interpretation before reading Freud’s personal response.
[7] I personally have mixed feelings about psychological testimony being used to mitigate punishment. There appear to be legitimate instances in which individuals have diminished capacity. Yet, too often this type of testimony appears to be a clever strategy to reduce the sentence of individuals who likely had control over their actions. Unfortunately, there does not exist any definitive testing. Instead, we are left with conflicting expert opinion.
[8] As an interesting side note, throughout the closing statement, Darrow repeatedly mentions the ages of the defendants correctly as 18 and 19 at the time of the murder. Yet in his autobiography (Darrow, 1932, p.226, p.241), he takes a year off each to make Loeb 17 and Leopold 18. I do not believe this was an accident, but an attempt to put the case in a better light (17-18 is closer to childhood than 18-19).