Measuring the Soul

Psychological Technologies and the Production of Physical Health in Progressive Era America

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4796665
AutoresElizabeth A Gagen (University of Hull), Elizabeth Gagen (University of Hull, autor de correspondencia)
Año2006
Volumen24
Número6
Páginas827-849
Fecha de publicación2006-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1068/d373t
OpenAlexW1987306056
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11
Referencias citadas18

This paper is concerned with the establishment of child psychology at the end of the 19th century and with its applied uses in the field of physical education. During this period psychology evolved from a philosophical field content with generalised statements about the human soul to a scientific field concerned with measuring and individuating the psyche. This paper focuses on how while psychology quickly laid claim to establishing the contours of normative mental health it was simultaneously deployed in the service of identifying and bolstering normative physical health. As interiority was systematically brought within the realm of science, the traditional metonymic connection between physicality and morality materialised into a new relationship between the self and its numerical existence. This relationship is explored here through an examination of physical-health testing in New York schools during the Progressive Era. My aim is to draw out the manifold ways in which psychological technologies were absorbed into spatial practice, supporting the claim of this theme issue that the proliferation of psychology can be traced through multiple governing practices and into specific geographies

Emptiness · Epistemology · Field (mathematics · Mental health · Morality · Normative · Political science · Psyche · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Realm · Social science · Sociology · Soul · Theme (computing · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · American History and Culture · Computer Science · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Philosophy · Psychology