Basic Biographical Information
Born April 22, 1884; Died June 2, 1964.
Frederic Lyman Wells was the son of Benjamin Wells (Ph.D. Harvard, 1880), professor of languages and comparative literature at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, where Frederic grew up. He moved with his father in 1899 to New York and entered Columbia University. Graduating in 1903, he entered directly into the Columbia graduate program, where he studied the psychology of language, completing a doctoral thesis on linguistic lapses and also conducting a statistical survey of literary merit. After the doctorate, he took over the position in clinical psychology at McLean Hospital in Waverly, Massachusetts, a vacancy created by Franz’s move to St. Elizabeth’s in Washington, D. C. in 1907.
Major Accomplishments/Contributions
Wells was among that group of psychologists who pioneered clinical psychology in hospital settings. His early professional activity ranged over several areas: in his first 5 years at...
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References
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Devonis, D.C. (2012). Wells, Frederic Lyman. In: Rieber, R.W. (eds) Encyclopedia of the History of Psychological Theories. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0463-8_129
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