Henry Alexander Murray (May 13, 1893 – June 23, 1988) was an American

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

at Harvard University. From 1959 to 1962, he conducted a series of psychologically damaging and purposefully abusive experiments on minors and undergraduate students. One of those students was Ted Kaczynski, later known as the Unabomber. Murray was Director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic in the School of Arts and Sciences after 1930. Murray developed a theory of personality called personology, based on " need" and "press". Murray was also a co-developer, with

Christiana Morgan Christiana Drummond Morgan (born Christiana Drummond Councilman; October 6, 1897 – March 14, 1967) was an American artist, writer and lay psychoanalyst at Harvard University best known for her work co-authoring the Thematic Apperception Test, o ...

, of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), which he referred to as "the second best-seller that Harvard ever published, second only to the '' Harvard Dictionary of Music''".

Early life and education

Murray was born in New York City into a wealthy family of Henry Alexander Murray Sr. and Fannie Morris Babcock, daughter of financier

Samuel Denison Babcock Samuel Denison Babcock (May 16, 1822 – September 14, 1902) was an American banker. Early life Babock was born on May 16, 1822, in Stonington, Connecticut. He was a son of Benjamin Franklin Babcock Sr. and Maria (née Eells) Babcock. His ancest ...

. Murray had an older sister and a younger brother. Carver and Scheier note that "he got on well with his father but had a poor relationship with his mother", resulting in a deep-seated feeling of depression. They hypothesize that the disruption of this relationship led Murray to be especially aware of people's needs and their importance as underlying determinants of behavior.Carver, Charles S., and Michael Scheier (1992). ''Perspectives on Personality'', 2nd ed. Needham Heights, Mass.: Allyn & Bacon. . After

Groton School Groton School (founded as Groton School for Boys) is a private college-preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts. Ranked as one of the top five boarding high schools in the United States in Niche (2021–2022), it is affiliated ...

he attended Harvard University, where he majored in history while competing in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, rowing and boxing. His academic pursuits at Harvard were lacking, but at Columbia University he excelled in medicine, completed his M.D. and also received an M.A. in biology in 1919. For the following two years he was an instructor in physiology at Harvard. He received his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge in 1928, aged 35. In 1916, Murray married at age 23 to Josephine Lee Rantoul. In 1923, after seven years of marriage, he met and fell in love with

; he experienced a serious conflict as he did not want to leave his wife. This was a turning point in Murray's life as it raised his awareness of conflicting needs, the pressure that can result, and the links to motivation. Carver and Scheier note that it was Morgan who was "fascinated by the psychology of Carl Jung" and it was as a result of her urging that he met Carl Jung in Switzerland. He described Jung as "The first full blooded, spherical—and Goethean, I would say, intelligence I had ever met." He was analyzed by him and studied his works. "The experience of bringing a problem to a psychologist and receiving an answer that seemed to work had a great impact on Murray, leading him to seriously consider psychology as a career".

Professional career

During his period at Harvard, Murray sat in on lectures by

Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found applicat ...

, whose process philosophy marked his philosophical and metaphysical thinking throughout his professional career. In 1927, at the age of 33, Murray became assistant director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic. He developed the concepts of latent needs (not openly displayed), manifest needs (observed in people's actions), "press" (external influences on motivation) and "thema"—"a pattern of press and need that coalesces around particular interactions". Murray collaborated with

Stanley Cobb Stanley Cobb (December 10, 1887 – February 25, 1968) was a neurologist and could be considered "the founder of biological psychiatry in the United States". Early life Cobb was born on December 10, 1887, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to John Can ...

, Bullard Professor of Neuropathology at the Medical School, to introduce psychoanalysis into the Harvard curriculum but to keep those who taught it away from the decision-making apparatus in Vienna. He and Cobb set the stage for the founding of the

Boston Psychoanalytic Society The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (BPSI) is a psychoanalytic research, training, education facility that is affiliated with the American Psychoanalytic Association and the International Psychoanalytic Association. There were no psyc ...

after 1931, but both were excluded from membership on political grounds. In 1935, Murray and Morgan developed the concept of apperception and the assumption that everyone's thinking is shaped by subjective processes, the rationale behind the Thematic apperception test. They used the term "apperception" to refer to the process of projecting fantasy imagery onto an objective stimulus. In 1937, Murray became director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic. In 1938 he published ''Explorations in Personality'', a classic in psychology, which includes a description of the Thematic Apperception Test. In 1938 Murray acted as a consultant for the British Government, setting up the Officer Selection Board. Murray's work at The Harvard Psychological Clinic enabled him to apply his theories in the design of the selection processes with a "situation test", an assessment based on practical tasks and activities, an analysis of ''specific criteria'' (e.g. "leadership") by a number of raters across a range of activities. Results were pooled to achieve an overall assessment.

World War II, Office of Strategic Services, 1939–45

During World War II, he left Harvard and worked as

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

for the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...

(OSS). James Miller, in charge of the selection of secret agents at the OSS during World War II, said the situation test was used by British War Officer Selection Board and OSS to assess potential agents. In 1943 Murray helped complete ''

Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler ''Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler: With Predictions of His Future Behavior and Suggestions for Dealing with Him Now and After Germany's Surrender'' was a report prepared by Henry A. Murray for the United States Office of Strategic Ser ...

'', commissioned by OSS boss Gen. William "Wild Bill" Donovan. The report was done in collaboration with

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: + . is a set of Theory, theories and Therapy, therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a bo ...

Walter C. Langer Walter Charles Langer (February 5, 1899 – July 4, 1981) was an American psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst who was best known for preparing a psychological analysis of Adolf Hitler in 1943. Langer studied psychoanalysis at Harvard University, where he ...

, Ernst Kris,

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...

, and

Bertram D. Lewin Bertram David Lewin (30 November 1896 – 8 January 1971) was an American psychoanalyst who was both an acute clinician and a contributor to theory, particularly to the study of elation, and of the dream screen. Training and contributions Lewin ha ...

New York Psychoanalytic Institute The New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute — founded in 1911 by Dr. Abraham A. Brill — is the oldest psychoanalytic organization in the United States. The charter members were: Louis Edward Bisch, Brill, Horace Westlake Frink, Frede ...

. The report used many sources to profile Hitler, including informants such as Ernst Hanfstaengl, Hermann Rauschning, Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe, Gregor Strasser, Friedelind Wagner, and

Kurt Ludecke Kurt is a male given name of Germanic or Turkish origin. ''Kurt'' or ''Curt'' originated as short forms of the Germanic Conrad, depending on geographical usage, with meanings including counselor or advisor. In Turkish, Kurt means "Wolf" and i ...

. The groundbreaking study was the pioneer of offender profiling and political psychology. In addition to predicting that Hitler would choose suicide if defeat for Germany was near, Murray's collaborative report stated that Hitler was impotent as far as heterosexual relations were concerned and that there was a possibility that Hitler had participated in a homosexual relationship. The report stated: "The belief that Hitler is homosexual has probably developed (a) from the fact that he does show so many

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...

characteristics, and (b) from the fact that there were so many homosexuals in the Party during the early days and many continue to occupy important positions. It is probably true that Hitler calls

Albert Forster Albert Maria Forster (26 July 1902 – 28 February 1952) was a Nazi German politician, member of the SS and war criminal. Under his administration as the ''Gauleiter'' and ''Reichsstatthalter'' of Danzig-West Prussia (the other German-ann ...

'Bubi', which is a common nickname employed by homosexuals in addressing their partners."

Harvard human experiments, 1959–62

In 1947, he returned to Harvard as a chief researcher, lectured and established with others the ''Psychological Clinic Annex''. From late 1959 to early 1962, Murray was responsible for unethical experiments in which he used twenty-two Harvard undergraduates as research subjects. Among other goals, experiments sought to measure individuals' responses to extreme stress. The unwitting undergraduates were submitted to what Murray called "vehement, sweeping and personally abusive" attacks. Specifically tailored assaults to their egos, cherished ideas, and beliefs were used to cause high levels of stress and distress. The subjects then viewed recorded footage of their reactions to this verbal abuse repeatedly. Among the subjects was 17-year-old Ted Kaczynski, a mathematician who went on to be known as the 'Unabomber', a domestic terrorist who targeted academics and technologists for 17 years. Alston Chase's book ''Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist'' connects Kaczynski's abusive experiences under Murray to his later criminal career.Chase, Alston (Jun. 2000)
"Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber."
'' The Atlantic'', vol. 285, no. 6, pp. 41-65. In 1960, Timothy Leary started research in psychedelic drugs at Harvard, which Murray is said to have supervised. Some sources have suggested that Murray's experiments were part of, or indemnified by, the US Government's research into mind control known as the MKUltra project.

Moreno, Jonathan D. Jonathan D. Moreno is an American philosopher and historian who specializes in the intersection of bioethics, culture, science, and national security, and has published seminal works on the history, sociology and politics of biology and medicine ...

(2012). ''Mind Wars: Brain Science and the Military in the 21st Century''. New York: Bellevue Literary Press, NYU School of Medicine. Revised and updated. . Originally published as ''Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense''. Washington, D.C.:

Dana Press The Dana Foundation (Charles A. Dana Foundation) is a private philanthropic organization based in New York dedicated to advancing neuroscience and society by supporting cross-disciplinary intersections such as neuroscience and ethics, law, polic ...

(2006).

Retirement and death

In 1962, shortly after the death of his wife, Murray became emeritus professor, and earned the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association and the Gold Medal Award for lifetime achievement from the American Psychological Foundation.Biographical profile
at

McGraw-Hill Education McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...

. He later married Caroline "Nina" Fish, a child psychologist at Boston University and the

Massachusetts Mental Health Center The Massachusetts Mental Health Center is a historic psychiatric hospital complex at 75 Fenwood Road in the Longwood medical area of Boston, Massachusetts. The center was founded in 1912 as the Boston Psychopathic Hospital. Its original main b ...

who was a former student of Jean Piaget. Henry Murray (1893-1988)

Murray died from pneumonia at the age of 95. Murray was a leading authority on the works of American author Herman MelvilleFowler, Glenn (Jun. 24, 1988)
"Henry A. Murray is dead at 95; developer of personality theory."
(

obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

). '' The New York Times'', p. D17. and amassed a collection of books, manuscripts and artifacts relating to Melville which he donated to the

Berkshire Athenaeum The Berkshire Athenaeum is a public library (1872) based on a previously private athenaeum, and now at 1 Wendell Avenue, Pittsfield, Massachusetts in the Berkshires, United States. Like many New England libraries, the Berkshire Athenaeum started a ...

in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Personology

Murray's Theory of Personality, also called ''personology'', is explained in his book, ''Explorations in Personality'', written in 1938. Murray's system of needs is an important part of the personological system. and developed while personality theory in psychology was becoming dominated by the statistics of trait theory. Personology was a holistic approach that studied the person at many levels of complexity all at the same time by an interdisciplinary team of investigators. According to Murray's ideas, an individual's personality develops dynamically as each person responds to complex elements in her or his specific environment. Murray viewed an individual's entire life as one unit, and pointed out that although a specific element of a person's life can be studied through psychology, this studied episode gives an incomplete picture of the entire life unit. To properly analyze the entire life cycle, Murray favored a narrative approach to studying personality, which he called "personology". The personological system has been used as an approach for multiple academic disciplines: philosophy, humanism, biological chemistry, and societal and cultural studies. Murray divided personology into five principles: (1) Cerebral physiology, rooted in the brain, governs all aspects of personality. (2) People act to reduce physiological and psychological tension to gain satisfaction, but do not strive to be tension-free, and rather cycle between seeking excitement, activity and movement in their lives and then relaxing. (3) An individual's personality continues to develop over time and is influenced by all of the events that occur over a person's lifetime. (4) Personality is not fixed and it can change and progress, and (5) Each person has some unique characteristics and others which are shared by everyone. Murray's theory of personality is rooted in psychoanalysis, and the chief business and aim of personology is the reconstruction of the individual's past life experiences in order to explain their present behavior. To study personality, Murray used free association and dream analysis to bring unconscious material to light. Murray's personality theories have been questioned by some psychologists, and extended by others, such as David McClelland.

Legacy

Murray's identification of psychological needs, the Murray's system of needs, including Achievement, Affiliation and Power (1938) provided the theoretical basis for the later research of David McClelland and underpins development of competency-based models of management effectiveness such as

Richard Boyatzis Richard Eleftherios Boyatzis (born October 1, 1946) is a Greek American organizational theorist and Distinguished University Professor in the Departments of Organizational Behavior, Psychology, and Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve Univers ...

's. McClelland, Boyatzis and Spencer went on to found the McBer Consultancy. However, Murray's contribution is rarely acknowledged in contemporary academic literature. ''Explorations in Personality'' underlying principles were later adopted by AT&T in the development of

the Assessment Centre An assessment centre is a process where candidates are examined to determine their suitability for specific types of employment, especially management or military command. The candidates' personality and aptitudes are determined by techniques i ...

methodology, now widely used to assess management potential in both private and public sector organisations.

In popular culture

''Manhunt: Unabomber'' (2017)

Murray was portrayed by Brian d'Arcy James in ''Manhunt: Unabomber'', the 2017

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

created by Andrew Sodroski,

Jim Clemente James "Jim" T. Clemente (born October 30, 1959, San Mateo, California) is an American author, former New York State prosecutor, former FBI profiler, podcast co-host and creator of the show '' Real Crime Profile'', and writer/producer on CBS' ''Cri ...

and Tony Gittelson. Barber, Nigel (Nov. 9, 2017)
"Is Psychology Responsible for the Unabomber?: 'Manhunt' partly blames research by Henry Murray."
''

Psychology Today ''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior. It began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The ''Psychology Today'' website features therapy and health professionals direct ...

''.

Selected works

Books

* ''Explorations in Personality'', with
foreword
by

Dan P. McAdams Dan P. McAdams (born February 7, 1954) is personality psychologist and the Henry Wade Rogers Professor in the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University. He was raised in Gary, Indiana, where he attended nearby Valparaiso University. In ...

. New York: Oxford University Press (1938); reissue (2008).
''Assessment of Men: Selection of Personnel for the Office of Strategic Service''
with OSS Selection Staff. New York:

Rinehart Rinehart may refer to: People *Buck Rinehart (1946–2015), American politician *Cowboy Slim Rinehart (1911–1948), American singer *Frank Rinehart (1861–1928), American artist *Gina Rinehart (born 1954), Australian businesswoman *James Rineh ...

(1948). * '' Personality in Nature, Society, and Culture'', with Clyde Kluckhohn. New York: Knopf (1953).
''Myth and Mythmaking''.
New York:

G. Braziller George Braziller (February 12, 1916 – March 16, 2017) was an American book publisher and the founder of George Braziller, Inc., a firm known for its literary and artistic books and its publication of foreign authors. Life and career Braziller ...

(1960).

Articles

* "The Effect of Fear Upon Estimates of the Maliciousness of other Personalities." ''

Journal of Social Psychology ''The Journal of Social Psychology'' is a bimonthly academic journal covering social psychology published by Routledge, who acquired it from Heldref Publications in 2009. The journal was established in 1929 by John Dewey and Carl Murchison. It cov ...

'', vol. 4, no. 3 (1933), pp. 310–329. . * "Psychology and the University." ''Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry'', vol. 34 (Oct. 1935). .
"Assessment of OSS Personnel,"
with

Donald W. MacKinnon Donald Wallace MacKinnon (January 9, 1903 – January 20, 1987) was an American psychologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He was known for researching the psychology of creativity. Career After receiving his Ph.D. from ...

. ''

Journal of Consulting Psychology The ''Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology'' is a monthly academic journal published by the American Psychological Association. Its focus is on treatment and prevention in all areas of clinical and clinical-health psychology and especiall ...

'', vol. 10, no. 2 (1946), pp. 76–80. . * "America's Mission." ''

Survey Graphic ''Survey Graphic'' (SG) was a United States magazine launched in 1921. From 1921 to 1932, it was published as a supplement to ''The Survey'' and became a separate publication in 1933. ''SG'' focused on sociological and political research and ana ...

'', vol. 37, no. 10 (Oct. 1948), pp. 411–415
Full issue.Full audio.

"In Nomine Diaboli."
''

New England Quarterly ''The New England Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal consisting of articles on New England's cultural, literary, political, and social history. The journal contains essays, interpretations of traditional texts, essay reviews and book r ...

'', vol. 24, no. 4 (Dec. 1951), pp. 435–452. . .
"Introduction to the Issue 'Myth and Mythmaking.'"
'' Daedalus'', vol. 88, no. 2
Special Issue: Myth and Mythmaking
(Spring 1959), pp. 211–222. .
"The Personality and Career of Satan."
'' Journal of Social Issues'', vol. 18, no. 4 (Oct. 1962), pp. 36–54. . * "Studies of Stressful Interpersonal Disputations." '' American Psychologist'', vol. 18, no. 1 (1963), pp. 28–36. .

Reviews

* "This is 'Psychology'..." Review of ''Personality: A Biosocial Approach to Origins and Structure'', by Gardner Murphy. ''

'', vol. 37, no. 3 (Mar. 1948), pp. 167–168.
Review of ''Anthropology and the Classics''
by Clyde Kluckhohn. '' American Anthropologist'', vol. 65, no. 1 (Feb. 1963), pp. 139–140. .
"The Freudian Hawthorne." Review of ''The Sins of the Fathers: Hawthorne's Psychological Themes''
by

Frederick C. Crews Frederick Campbell Crews (born 20 February 1933) is an American essayist and literary critic. Professor emeritus of English at the University of California, Berkeley, Crews is the author of numerous books, including ''The Tragedy of Manners: Mo ...

. '' The American Scholar'', vol. 36, no. 2 (Spring 1967), pp. 308–312. .

Contributions

* "The Effect of Fear upon Estimates of the Maliciousness of Other Personalities in Understanding Human Motivation." In: ''Understanding Human Motivation'', by C. L. Stacey & M. DeMartino (eds). Cleveland: Howard Allen Publishers (1958). pp. 327–342.
Abstract.

"Historical Trends in Personality Research" (Part One: Overview).
In: ''Perspectives in Personality Research'', edited by Henry P. David and Johannes C. Brengelmann. Berlin:

Springer Science+Business Media, LLC Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 i ...

(1960)
pp. 3-39.
. *

Introduction Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to: General use * Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music * Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...

t
''Myth and Mythmaking''
by Henry A. Murray (ed). New York:

(1960). pp. 9-17. * "The Possible Nature of a 'Mythology' to Come" (Chapter 17). In
''Myth and Mythmaking''
by Henry A. Murray (ed). New York:

(1960). pp. 300-353.

Reports

* ''Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler: With Predictions of his Future Behavior and Suggestions for Dealing with Him Now and After Germany's Surrender''. Washington:

(1943)
Full text.

References

External links

Henry A. Murray
at

Neurotree Neurotree is a web-based database for the academic genealogy of neuroscientists. It was established in 2005. Later in 2005, Academic Family Tree began, incorporating Neurotree and academic genealogies of other scholarly disciplines. Unlike a conv ...

TAT Research
at the University of Tennessee
Sandra K. Webster: Henry Murray
at Westminster College
Biographical profile
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Henry 1893 births 1988 deaths 20th-century American psychologists Analysands of Franz Alexander Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni Harvard College alumni Harvard University Department of Psychology faculty Mind control theorists Project MKUltra Deaths from pneumonia in Massachusetts Human subject research in the United States People of the Office of Strategic Services