Gail A. Hornstein

Professor of Psychology and Education

Education

  • B.S., University of Pittsburgh
  • M.A., Clark University
  • Ph.D., Clark University

Courses Taught

  • Personality Theory
  • Development in Early Childhood
  • Concepts of Abnormality
  • History and Systems of Psychology
  • Introductory Psychology
  • Psychology of Women
  • Social Psychology
  • Gender & Identity (with F. Deutsch)
  • Phenomenological Research in Psychology
  • Development in Later Childhood and Adolescence
  • Research Methods
  • Seminar in Dream Interpretation
  • Seminar in the History of Psychology
  • First Person Narratives of Mental Illness
  • Qualitative Methods in Psychology

Interests

My research is broadly concerned with the history of twentieth-century psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis. I have recently published a book on psychoanalytic approaches to the treatment of psychosis, which focuses on the work of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, M.D. (1889-1957). One goal of the book is to show that despite the widespread use of somatic treatments (medication, electroshock, lobotomy), psychotherapy can be used to treat even the most severe forms of mental disturbance.

I am currently at work on a new book that uses first-person narratives of madness to reconceive fundamental assumptions about the mind and mental disorder. Drawing on published narratives (both historical and contemporary), oral histories, interviews, and participant observation in both the US and UK, this work seeks to highlight the central (but unacknowledged) role that people diagnosed with "mental illness" have always played in understanding madness and its treatment.

Recent Publications

Hornstein, G.A. (2000).  To Redeem One Person is to Redeem the World: The Life of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann.  NY:  Free Press (paperback, NY: Other Press, 2005).

Hornstein, G.A. (2002).  Narratives of madness, as told from within.  The Chronicle Review (cover story, January 25 issue), pp. B7-10.

Hornstein, G.A. (2005).  Bibliography of first-person narratives of madness in English (3rd Ed.).  Read it here.

Hornstein, G.A. (2006).  Frieda Fromm-Reichmann:  Pioneer in the psychotherapy of psychosis.  In D.A. Dewsbury, L.T. Benjamin and M. Wertheimer (Eds.), Portraits of pioneers in psychology, Volume 6.  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, pp. 85-100.

Adame, A.L. and Hornstein, G.A. (2006). Representing madness: How are subjective experiences of emotional distress presented in first-person accounts? The Humanistic Psychologist, 34, 135-158.

News Links

Hornstein Piece Runs in The Philadelphia Inquirer

Hornstein Piece Runs in Newsday

Madness in the First Person

Psyched about Fromm-Reichmann

Hornstein to Read from New Biography November 30

Hornstein's New Biography

1998: A Science Odyssey

Panel to Discuss Multiple Meanings of Princess Diana

Psychologist Hornstein Urges Therapists and Lay People to Listen to the Mentally Ill

Listening to Mentally Ill Patients Urged