incisive treatment of logical positivism, the reigning
philosophy of science at the time. Shortly after the
book’s publication and with the end of the ‘‘Age of
Theory,’’ Kessen and others abandoned the logical
positivistic vision of psychology as a science. In June
1959 the Social Science Research Council invited
Kessen and other distinguished developmental psy-
chologists to form the Committee on Intellective Pro-
cesses Research. Included in the several conference
reports of the Committee were five Monographs of the
Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), in-
cluding one edited by Kessen and Clementina Kuhl-
man entitled The Thought of the Young Child. These
were groundbreaking conferences that helped Ameri-
can psychologists become familiar with the still unfa-
miliar work of Jean Piaget. In his own report, ‘‘Stage
and Structure in the Study of Children,’’ Kessen inci-
sively explored the many and sometimes ambiguous
meanings of ‘‘stage’’ and ‘‘structure’’ in developmen-
tal psychology, focusing on the works of Piaget and
Freud.
In 1970 Kessen was lead author on the definitive
guide to infancy research published in Carmichael’s
Manual of Child Psychology. Five years later, he pub-
lished Childhood in China, in which he gathered to-
gether observations made while leading a state
department delegation to study early education in
China.
Kessen’s decisive turn toward exploring the his-
torical and cultural context of both children and child
psychology may be marked by his 1979 article ‘‘The
American Child and Other Cultural Inventions’’ in
American Psychologist. Based upon his presidential ad-
dress to Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) of the
American Psychological Association, Kessen argued
that both children and child psychology emerge from
and are defined by the contours of social change, in-
tellectual currents, and institutional arrangements.
The child, having been redefined as culturally and
historically variable, was not a stable object of study;
neither was the concept of development (beyond cer-
tain kinds of biologically driven growth) a source of
scientific certainty. Thus child psychology could not
and should not attempt to attain the older positivistic
ideal of stable and universal truths. Kessen continued
to publish a string of historical and philosophical es-
says, including the 1990 Heinz Werner lectures, pub-
lished by Clark University Press, in which he
challenged some of the most basic assumptions of de-
velopmental psychology. The essays leave the reader
with vexing questions about the meaning of develop-
ment itself.
Kessen traveled widely inside and outside aca-
deme. In addition to his travels in China, he joined
delegations to the Soviet Union, Norway, and
Czechoslovakia. With his family he spent two glorious
years in Tuscany (their ‘‘second home’’), studying
early education in Italy. Kessen held numerous ad-
ministrative positions, including chair of the Depart-
ment of Psychology as well as Secretary for Yale
University. He was a charming, lively, and insightful
conversationalist who moved easily between the poli-
cy world in Washington and the philanthropic worlds
centered in New York and Chicago. Although not one
to easily shed his scholastic circumspection, Kessen
retained a quiet but wise stance on political issues re-
lated to children, families, and government. Kessen
taught generations of students; he was a great and
magnanimous teacher, beloved by both undergradu-
ate and graduate students. Without seeming to med-
dle, Kessen nurtured generations of students with his
grace, insight, wisdom, compassion, and good
humor.
Kessen died on February 13, 1999, in New
Haven, Connecticut. At the time of his death he held
the Eugene Higgins Chair of Psychology and Pediat-224 KESSEN, WILLIAM