338 Clinical Psychology
LIGHTNER WITMER AND THE FOUNDING
OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Wundt and many of the early psychologists regarded psy-
chology as the scientific study of consciousness. As empiri-
cists, they believed that all that we know comes to us through
our senses. Accordingly, they were interested in how we ex-
perience the world through our senses, in the acuity of our
senses, and so on. When, in about 1884, Galton sought to
measure intelligence, it seemed reasonable to do so by means
of reaction time, sensory discrimination, height, weight, and
other anthropometric indices. James McKeen Cattell, who
was among the first Americans to receive a doctorate from
Wundt, was most interested in Galton’s work and elaborated
upon it.
Cattell (1890) introduced the term mental testand sug-
gested administering a standardized battery of 10 tests, such
as Least Noticeable Difference in Weight, Reaction-Time for
Sound, and Judgment of Ten Seconds. Subsequently, in 1921,
Cattell went on to found the Psychological Corporation,
which has since become one of the world’s largest suppliers
of psychological tests, but before he did that he had as one of
his students at the University of Pennsylvania a fledgling psy-
chologist by the name of Lightner Witmer (1867–1956).
Prior to studying psychology, Witmer was teaching
English at Rugby Academy, a prep school in Philadelphia,
where one of his pupils had an articulation problem. Witmer
had been considering a career in law or business, but this
youngster’s difficulties with speech aroused his interest.
Upon investigating further, he concluded the problem derived
from a head injury suffered at the age of 2 and speculated that
with proper diagnosis and treatment, this youngster could
have avoided years of frustration and embarrassment. That
psychology might be of help to those who had such problems
was a factor in leading Witmer to major in the new science.
After he received his doctorate in 1892, Witmer returned to
the University of Pennsylvania and took over the psychology
laboratory from Cattell, who left to assume a similar position
at Columbia University. While teaching a course in psychol-
ogy at Pennsylvania, Witmer was challenged by one of his
students, Margaret Maguire, a teacher in the Philadelphia
public schools, to use psychology to be of help to children
with learning problems. Specifically, she asked Witmer to
help a 14-year-old who seemed to be of normal intelligence
yet was three grades retarded in spelling. Witmer put the ado-
lescent through a diagnostic process and found a visual anom-
aly that was partially corrected by glasses. Then, by having
the child tutored, some improvement was effected, though the
situation was considerably more complex than originally pre-
sented (McReynolds, 1997; Witmer, 1907a).
Witmer was sufficiently encouraged by this success and
sufficiently convinced that psychology could be helpful to
persuade the university administration to back the creation of
a psychology clinic in 1896. Later that year, at the American
Psychological Association (APA) convention, he reported to
his colleagues what he had done and urged them to do like-
wise. He spoke of a “clinical method,” which would educate
students through demonstrations and contacts with those who
required the services of psychologists. Thus, the psycho-
logical clinic would be an agency for instruction, original
research, and service to the community (Reisman, 1991;
Witmer, 1897).
The treatments Witmer practiced and taught were essen-
tially pedagogical. In so doing, he carried on in the tradition
of such pioneers as J. Rodriguez Pereira, who taught the deaf
to speak; J. M. G. Itard, who attempted to educate and civi-
lize Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron; and Edouard Seguin,
who set up the first school to train those with mental retarda-
tion (Routh, del Barrio, & Carpentero, 1996). However, it
should also be recognized that Witmer, in common with
many clinicians today, believed that a broad range of prob-
lems indicated the need for remediation and training. To
Witmer, a juvenile delinquent was deficient in moral training
or proper conduct, and he thought of a child who might be re-
garded as psychotic today as developmentally arrested in a
variety of behaviors that required correction.
In assessing the person, Witmer at first relied upon obser-
vation and whatever psychometric devices were available,
which were then not very many. He also availed himself of
the services of social workers, teachers, and any other pro-
fessional who might be indicated, such as neurologists,
optometrists, and physicians. A few years after Alfred Binet
developed the first age scale for measuring children’s intelli-
gence in France (Binet & Simon, 1905), Witmer incorporated
a version of it into his clinical assessment procedures. An-
other important aspect of how Witmer viewed assessment
was that he saw the attempted remediation of a problem as an
opportunity to test his understanding of it. Thus, he regarded
treatment as part of assessment and to be often decisive in de-
termining the validity of one’s diagnosis.
About a decade after the founding of the clinic, Witmer ap-
pealed to Philadelphia philanthropist Mrs. J. Lewis (Mary L.)
Crozer for funds to establish a clinical journal. By then, Wit-
mer was offering courses and a training program in this new
field of psychology and appeared to be successfully serving
the community. She agreed to give him the money, and in
1907, a journal calledThe Psychological Clinicbegan publi-
cation. For the next 30 years, until it ceased publication in
1937, Witmer served as its editor, frequent contributor, occa-
sional book reviewer, and gossip columnist. In its first issue,