Editorial
In the spring of 1996, the History and Philosophy
of Psychology Section of the Canadian Psychological Association
held its program with the Learned Societies Congress at Brock
University. In a symposium entitled "Eugenics and psychology:
Threads of social, intellectual and political history", papers
were presented by Michael Kral, Marvin McDonald and Fred Weizmann.
At that symposium, Michael Kral showed us a slide collection that
he has organized on eugenics and psychology. One of those slides
appears on the cover of the present issue by permission of the
American Philosophical Society.
Again, in 1997, at the annual meeting of the Canadian
Psychological Association, the Section on the History and Philosophy
of Psychology sponsored a symposium
entitled "Racial difference research: A critical
view", with Michael Peters, Zack Cernovsky, Andrew Winston
and Fred Weizmann. This very well attended session (a packed room
on the last day and last session of the conference) suggested
to several of us that more discussion was desired in this area
among a broader readership than our Section. Consequently, as
editor of the Bulletin, I invited Marvin J. McDonald to
consider guest editing a special issue of HPPB so that
we could have a fuller discussion of the links between psychology
and eugenics, past and present.
For several months I have had the privilege of
watching this issue on psychology and eugenics take shape out
of the multitude of emails going back and forth between and among
participants. I am very impressed with the efforts of Marvin McDonald
to include multiple perspectives among those participating. He
has shown tremendous professionalism for all concerned, particularly
for the Cattell family who have also watched this issue take shape.
In the end, I suspect he may have wanted even more participation
and a fuller disclosure of points of view. As editor of the Bulletin,
I welcome responses to the essays that are in the special issue
and hope that the dialogue continues in future issues. I thank
all the contributors, particularly Marvin McDonald, who has brought
this issue of HPPB together.
I would also like to acknowledge Barry Kelly,
University of Winnipeg and Janos Botschner, University of Guelph
who served as reviewers for this issue. The Bulletin is
published twice yearly and we rely on the efficiency of our membership.
I am also grateful to Catherine Borshuk, Assistant Editor, for
her increasing mastery of desktop publishing and to Carla Krachun
for switching careers from copy editing to psychology just when
we needed her; and to Sheri Getz for pitching in.
Additional copies are available by writing directly
to our Secretary/Treasurer, Janos Botschner.
The meetings of the Canadian Psychological Association
will be in Halifax in May and our next issue will help to mark
the 60th anniversary of the CPA.
Frances Cherry
Editor
