G. Stanley Hall, 1846—1924

In the recent death on April 24, 1924, of Dr. G. Stanley Hall, former President of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., U.S.A., psycho-analysis lost a staunch supporter and advocate of its theories and practice. Under the presidency of Dr. Hall, Clark University was the first American institution to give academic recognition to psycho-analysis, in 1909; indeed, it was the first University in the world to do so. This was a bold step in those early days of the development of psycho-analysis, showing how far-sighted Dr. Hall was and how his psychological attainments looked into the future rather than to the past. Perhaps Dr. Hall's attainments in psychology can be best summarized in the words of the dedication to the special number (1903) of the American Journal of Psychology in commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his completion of the Doctorate of Philosophy. There it is stated 'Founder of the first American Laboratory for Experimental Psychology and of the first American Journal for the publication of the results of Psychological investigations, Pioneer in the systematic study of the mental development of children and in the application of its results to educational practice'.

As we are concerned in this notice principally with Dr. Hall's attitude towards psycho-analysis, it will be interesting to trace the development of his ideas through some of his principal publications. As early as 1904, in his great work in The Psychology of Adolescence, Dr. Hall appreciated the value of Freud's work, and showed a very intelligent grasp of psycho-analysis, as far as it had then been developed. He stated, for instance, referring to hysteria, 'much depends on the balance between over-excitation and repression of sexual functions', and recognized the nature of conversion in the formation of hysterical symptoms, either directly or as symbolic equivalents. He was familiar with an early paper by Freud (1892), in which it was shown that 'all forms of morbid anxiety w