Magda Arnold and the Human Person

406 Pages·2015·2.06 MB·English

Magda Arnold and the Human Person:
A Mid-Century Case Study on the Relationship Between Psychology and Religion

ELISSA N. RODKEY

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Graduate Program in Psychology
York University
Toronto, Ontario
July 2015

© Elissa N. Rodkey, 2015
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Abstract
The life of Magda Arnold (1903-2002)—best known for her pioneering appraisal theory of
emotion—spanned the 20th century, and as a result she witnessed the rise and fall of many of the
major “schools” of psychology. Arnold had an unusual perspective on these theories of
psychology, due in large part to an event that occurred in 1948: her conversion to Roman
Catholicism. Throughout her life, but especially following her conversion, Arnold rejected
reductionistic theories of the human person, instead articulating theories which emphasized
human agency and telos, and which held up the human experience as the primary source of
psychological knowledge. Arnold’s conversion significantly affected her career, as she made
professional sacrifices to teach in Catholic institutions and was open about her religious identity
in her academic work at a time when Catholic scholars were suspect. Arnold’s conversion also
shaped her psychological thinking—she later credited her conversion and her resulting exposure
to scholastic philosophy with inspiring her appraisal theory. Although there were other Catholics
active in psychology at mid-century, Arnold was unusual even in that cohort for her seamless
integration of her faith and her science.
Arnold’s involvement in psychology (1935-1975) roughly corresponds with a period in academic
psychology in which there was very minimal investigation of religious topics (1930-1976)—they
were generally considered taboo or unscientific. Yet the majority of American consumers of
psychology remained religious in this period, and applied and popular psychology addressed
their interests. Arnold’s life contributes an important perspective on this time period,
highlighting how one psychologist of faith responded to the pressures of an increasingly secular
psychology by rejecting the apparent conflict to affirm the fundamental compatibility of faith
and science. As such Arnold’s life is a useful contribution to the growing literature on the
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“complexity” perspective on the relationship between science and religion (as opposed to the
traditional “conflict” perspective). Arnold was also aware of her own perspective as a religious
psychologist and emphasized experimenter subjectivity in her work—offering a critical
perspective on psychology that anticipated modern critiques of scientific objectivity. As a result
Arnold can contribute to discussions of reflexivity and objectivity in psychology, both by
drawing on her writings about the role of basic assumptions in science, and by considering her
life to see just how her personal beliefs shaped her science.
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful to so many who have supported me during the writing of this dissertation, and
throughout my graduate school journey. I would like to dedicate this dissertation to two of those
people:
To my father, John Rodkey, who taught me to be curious, to love words, and to do excellent
work. Who is brilliant and driven enough to have gotten his PhD many times over, but instead
has chosen to work “for the greater glory of God” and to serve his family–this is for you. It is
you who taught me to think critically, and who first showed me that faith and inquiry go hand in
hand. Thank you for so generously reading and editing the whole thing and always being willing
to talk about it—I love you.
And to my mentor and dear friend, Ann Seavey, without whose help I would never have gone to
graduate school in the first place. Your unfailing love and support helped me survive college and
you gave me the tools I needed to excel. Thank you for constant confidence in me, your
encouragement along the way, and your joy in my victories.
Grateful thanks to Joan Arnold for so graciously and openly sharing her mother’s
correspondence and her own remembrances. And also thanks to Margaret Arnold and Eileen
Gavin for sharing their memories of Magda.
Thanks to Stephanie Shields for launching me on this journey by telling me about Arnold and so
generously sharing her resources and contacts.
Thanks to the wonderful staff of the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology for sharing
the Magda Arnold papers, and to the Harvard University Archives staff for their friendly help.
Thanks to Robert Kugelmann for his very helpful work on Catholic psychology, without which I
would have been very lost indeed, and for the conversations and help with sources. Similarly
thanks to Vincent Hevern for kindly sharing his knowledge of Catholics in psychology. And
thanks to Russ Kosits for sharing your Allport research.
Thanks to my committee members, Angela Febbraro and Michael Pettit, whose careful reading
and critical comments made this project much stronger.
Thanks to Alexandra Rutherford for being a wonderful advisor—the perfect balance of
supportive and challenging!
Thanks to Kirstin and Greg Jeffery Johnson for so generously allowing me to have a writing
retreat at their beautiful farm at a time when I really needed to focus.
Thanks to Peter Sam Raj for his work transcribing—even that terribly dull stuff on the
amygdala!
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Thanks to Christina Wassell and to my uncle, George Rodkey, for being my Catholicism
consultants, and enthusiastic supporters of the project.
Thanks to Gillian Ramsey for her help with the Latin, and Michael Buttrey for his help with the
philosophy.
Thanks to Kelli Vaughn Johnson and Jenn Bazar for the loving support and allowing me to talk
through my ideas. Also thanks to all of my graduate school friends—you always surprise me
with your generosity and love.
Thanks to my Knox family—you have become my family away from home and I would not have
stuck it out in Toronto without you.
Thanks especially to Ali Derksen, Jo Wienhølts, and Samantha Mudiappahpillai for your
constant encouragement and for always acting interested as I went off in raptures about Arnold
and Gasson and told you probably far more than you wanted to know.
A special thanks to Krista Rodkey for embodying the ideal of ‘family as intellectual
community’—offering not just enthusiastic encouragement but new ideas and directions for my
project.
Heartfelt thanks to my family—all of you—for your love and support of this long and strange
journey of graduate school. Even when it has been a mystery to you, you have loved me and
been proud of me, and that has given me the strength to continue.
Finally, I echo John Gasson: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... iv
Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ ix
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
The Relationship Between Psychology and Religion: A Historical Review .................................. 6
Religion and the Discipline of Psychology ..................................................................................... 7
Religion and Popular Psychology ................................................................................................. 16
The Importance of Popular Psychology .................................................................................... 23
Objectivity and the Personal in Science........................................................................................ 24
Materials and Methods .................................................................................................................. 28
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 31
Chapter 1: Magda Arnold’s Biography ......................................................................................... 33
A Lonely and Independent Childhood .......................................................................................... 34
Romantic Attachments .................................................................................................................. 46
Strange Land, Unknown Future .................................................................................................... 54
The End of a Marriage .................................................................................................................. 58
New Intellectual Life .................................................................................................................... 63
Greener Pastures in America ........................................................................................................ 73
Into the Catholic Ghetto ................................................................................................................ 82
Professional Flourishing ............................................................................................................... 86
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 97
Chapter 2: Arnold’s Intellectual and Spiritual Development ..................................................... 101
The Mechanics of Conversion .................................................................................................... 103
The Beginning of a Friendship ................................................................................................... 109
A New Life ................................................................................................................................. 120
Catholic Community ............................................................................................................... 121
Vocational Questions .............................................................................................................. 124
Uncovering Psychology’s Philosophical Foundations ............................................................ 135
Gasson and Arnold: An Intimate Friendship .............................................................................. 144
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Visiting Patterns ...................................................................................................................... 145
Correspondence Patterns ......................................................................................................... 151
A Mutually Supportive Relationship ...................................................................................... 156
Romantic Endearments ........................................................................................................... 161
A Secret Affair? ...................................................................................................................... 164
“Very Much in Love” .............................................................................................................. 167
Academic Collaborators .......................................................................................................... 169
An Academic Couple .............................................................................................................. 172
The Catholic World..................................................................................................................... 176
Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 186
Chapter 3: Magda Arnold’s View of the Human Person ............................................................ 190
Catholic Psychology at Mid-century .......................................................................................... 193
Shaping the Workshop ................................................................................................................ 202
The Importance of Basic Assumptions ....................................................................................... 208
Personalist Psychology ............................................................................................................... 214
Theory in Psychology ................................................................................................................. 221
Alternative Interpretations of Personalist Psychology ................................................................ 226
No Mere Baptism: Arnold’s Model of Engagement with Secular Psychology .......................... 233
Freud........................................................................................................................................ 238
Jung ......................................................................................................................................... 240
Frankl ...................................................................................................................................... 242
The Self-Ideal.............................................................................................................................. 249
Reception of “The BOOK” ......................................................................................................... 257
Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 270
Chapter 4: Arnold’s Theory of Emotions and Thomistic Psychology ........................................ 274
A Survey of Past Emotion Research ........................................................................................... 276
A Phenomenological Theory of Emotion ................................................................................... 285
The Mediating Neurological Structures ...................................................................................... 291
The Thomistic Self-Ideal ............................................................................................................ 295
Arnold’s Theory in the Light of Thomistic Philosophy.............................................................. 306
Humanistic Influences ................................................................................................................ 316
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Arnold’s Thinking: Continuity or Discontinuity?....................................................................... 322
The Response to Emotion and Personality ................................................................................. 327
The Role of the Personal in Arnold’s Science ............................................................................ 332
Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 338
Epilogue: Objectivity and Meaning in 20th Century Psychology .............................................. 344
Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 355
Figure 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 396
Figure 2 ....................................................................................................................................... 397
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FIGURES
Figure 1: Magda Arnold’s Basic Emotions
Figure 2: Aquinas’ Concupiscible and Irascible Passions
1

Introduction
In January 1946, while at the University of Iowa, the 21-year-old Flannery O’Connor
began a journal in which she recorded her prayers. These prayers document both her already
impressive literary talent and her earnest spiritual yearning. For example, near the end of her
journal, she writes: “What I am asking for is really very ridiculous. Oh Lord, I am saying, at
present I am a cheese, make me a mystic, immediately. But then God can do that—make mystics
out of cheeses” (O’Connor, 2013, p. 38). In this brief journal (only 24 entries) psychology makes
a surprisingly frequent appearance.1 In her very first entry O’Connor prays: “I can feel a warmth
of love heating me when I think & write this to you. Please do not let the explanations of the
psychologist about this make it turn suddenly cold. My intellect is so limited, Lord that I can
only trust in you to preserve me as I should be” (O’Connor, 2013, p. 4). This anxiety that
psychological explanations would destroy her faith is a theme that reoccurs in the journal.
O’Connor writes frankly:
I dread, Oh Lord, losing my faith. My mind is not strong. It is a prey to all sorts of
intellectual quackery. I do not want it to be fear which keeps me in the church. I don’t
want to be a coward, staying with You because I fear hell. I should reason that if I fear
hell, I can be assured of the author of it. But learned people can analyze me for why I fear
hell and their implication is that there is no hell. (O’Connor, 2013, pp. 5-6)
As the mention of “learned people” suggests, O’Connor’s ongoing education is the
culprit in these doubts. She writes that the virtue of faith “gives me the most mental pain. At
every point in this educational process, we are told that it is ridiculous and their arguments sound
so good it is hard not to fall into them” (O’Connor, 2013, p. 15). In response to this intellectual

1 O’Connor received a social science degree at Georgia State College for Women in 1945.