Psychology and the Law: an Overture

Abstract

1976 is an auspicious birth year for the first chapter on the state of the psychology/ law interface. Although it has not been 200 years since these two fields--concerned with the rules of and for human behavior-initiated collaboration, the history of psychology and law dates back to the first decade of the twentieth century. While Freud in 1906 in Vienna (42) was lecturing judges on the practicality of psychology, others in the United States circa 1 9 10 were also connecting the classroom (psycho­ logical laboratory) with the courtroom (law). In 1908, Munsterberg of Harvard University's psychological laboratory attempted in his book, On the Witness Stand, to apply psychology to legal problems by demonstrating that the psychological processes of perception and memory must be considered in evaluating courtroom testimony (128). In 1909, Healy established in Chicago the first psychological clinic to be attached to a juvenile court-a first also for law; in 1 9 1 5, he wrote Honesty:

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