Boris Sidis
Boris Sidis | |
|---|---|
MD) | |
| Spouse | Sarah Mandelbaum |
| Children | 2, including William |
Boris Sidis (/ˈsaɪdɪs/; October 12, 1867 – October 24, 1923) was a Ukrainian-American psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education. Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. He was the father of child prodigy William James Sidis. Boris Sidis eventually opposed mainstream psychology and Sigmund Freud, and thereby died ostracized. He was married to a maternal aunt of Clifton Fadiman, the American intellectual.
Born in the Russian Empire, Sidis emigrated to the U.S. to escape political persecution. According to Amy Wallace, he was imprisoned for two years. Sidis fled the pogroms with his wife and children. He proceeded to complete four degrees at Harvard University and sought to provide insight into why people behave as they do. Sidis died in 1923, age 56.
Early life
Boris Sidis was born on October 12, 1867, in
Career and views
Boris completed four degrees at Harvard (a
He vehemently opposed
Personal life
Sidis married Sarah Mandelbaum by whom he had 2 children. William born on April 1, 1898, and Bessie born on February 12, 1908.
Sidis applied his own psychological approaches to raising William in whom he wished to promote a high intellectual capacity. After receiving much publicity for his childhood feats, he came to live an eccentric life and died in relative obscurity. Sidis himself derided
Sidis died on October 24, 1923, at the age of 56.
Partial bibliography
- The Psychology of Suggestion: A Research into the Subconscious Nature of Man and Society (1898)
- Psychopathological Researches: Studies in Mental Dissociation (1902)
- Multiple Personality: An Experimental Investigation into Human Individuality (1904)
- An Experimental Study of Sleep (1909)
- Philistine and Genius (1911)
- The Psychology of Laughter (1913)
- The Foundations of Normal and Abnormal Psychology (1914)
- Symptomatology, Psychognosis, and Diagnosis of Psychopathic Diseases (1914)
- The Causation and Treatment of Psychopathic Diseases (1916)
- The Source and Aim of Human Progress: A Study in Social Psychology and Social Pathology (1919)
- Nervous Ills: Their Cause and Cure (1922)
See also
- Ira Van Gieson (1866–1913), a collaborator
Notes
- ISBN 0-525-24404-2.
- ^ "Harvard alumni directory / compiled by the Harvard Alumni Directory, an office of Harvard University 1910". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2023-10-19.
- ^ Foundations of Normal and Abnormal psychology at www.sidis.net
References
- Wallace, Amy, The prodigy: A biography of William James Sidis, America's greatest child prodigy, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. 1986. ISBN 0-525-24404-2
- "Boris Sidis." Dictionary of American biography base set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928–1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005. galenet.galegroup.com
- See External Links for source of much of the details of Sidis's life from unpublished archive documents by his wife and daughter.
External links
