Seymour Sarason

Seymour B. Sarason ( born January 12, 1919 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York City; † January 28, 2010 in New Haven, New York) was an American psychologist.

Biography

Origin, study and Clinical Psychologist

Sarason came from a poor family and grew up in Newark (New York). When he fell ill while attending high school in poliomyelitis, his mother encouraged the then U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who also suffered from polio to ask in a letter for help. To the surprise of the family, he received a letter from Marguerite " Missy " LeHand, the private secretary of the President, in which the Sarason treatment was promised and he was due to the fact almost healed from the disease.

Later he studied at the University of Newark, where he in 1939 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA ) acquired. He then completed a post -graduate studies at Clark University and graduated in 1940 with a Master of Science (M.Sc. ) from. 1942 was his doctorate in Clinical Psychology. During his work as a clinical psychologist at a new facility for mentally Retarded in Southbury Dr. Sarason began with the idea that institutions do more harm than it helps.

As a clinical psychologist but was quickly disillusioned with the prevailing hypothesis that individual problems can be individually analyzed and treated. During his time in a state institution for retardation in Massachusetts, he was conscious that many mental disorders of social ties and organizational cultures originated.

Professor at Yale and justification of community psychology

In 1945 he began his work as a professor at Yale University, where he taught until his retirement in 1989.

During his previous position, he was particularly disturbed that psychological tests rather measured the deficits of patients. He, however, saw the need to promote the potential of, for example, by attending art classes.

These approaches his thinking he published in his first book " Psychological Problems in Mental Deficiency " (1949 ), the social and kulture factors examined influenced the subnormal behavior.

At Yale University, he founded the Institute for Psychological Education ( Psycho - Educational Institute ), a clinic for the development of new approaches to the treatment of the problems of children and adolescents. The psychologists and students of the clinic worked not only in the clinic itself, but went to the schools, childcare facilities and boarding schools to cooperate with the persons working in the familiar environment of children and adolescents.

His work on Psycho - Educational Institute, of which he was from 1961 to 1970, led to his series of books such as:

• "Psychology in Community Settings", 1966
• "The Culture of the School and the Problem of Change", 1971
• " The Creation of Settings and The Future Societies ", 1972
• "The Psychological Sense of Community: Prospects for a Community Psychology ", 1974.

His community psychological approach to psychological problems drew on a range of subject areas and he wrote about a number of topics, particularly concerning the formation. He looked at traditional schools and what he called the " nested class room ", as enemies of learning and human potential, separated from the larger surrounding society and hampered by a lack of cooperation among teachers.

Although he looked deeply pessimistic education reforms, he nevertheless published a number of books on the subject such as:

• "The Preparation of Teachers: An unstudied problem of Education", 1962
• "How Schools Might be Governed and Why ", 1997
• "Educational Reform: A Self- Scutinizing Memoir ", 2002.

In 1988 his autobiography "The Making of an American Psycho -tier ".

Most recently, he finished shortly before his death, " Centers for Ending: The Coming Crisis in the Care of Aged People", whose publication is provided posthumously.

As a psychologist, contributed his fundamental work on social relationships and their influence on individual problems on the grounds of the Department of Community Psychology. As the author of more than 40 books he presented his practical knowledge of social psychology in many areas are as the treatment of people with mental disorders and retardation, educational reform, teacher training and care for the elderly.

In an obituary tribute to him Andy Hargreaves, professor and holder of the Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, as follows: