ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Child prodigies, artistic genius and experimental psychology in early 20th century Europe

• In Event: Raising Exceptional Children: Psychology, Education, and Motherhood

English Abstract

At the beginning of the 20th century, psychological studies began to be conducted on child prodigies who possessed artistic talents, especially in music. Previously, the child prodigies who had been the object of scientific research had stood out for skills such as mental calculation. Psychological interest in artistic prodigies thus led to a new line of research, intertwined with studies on genius and precocity. Scientists did not hesitate to use new psychological tools, such as mental tests to measure memory, intelligence and other intellectual abilities. This talk investigates the problem of precocious talent and artistic genius in experimental psychology through cases of child prodigies of the early 20th century Europe. We will analyse studies such as those by Franziska Baumgarten and her book Wunderkinder. Psychologische Untersuchungen (1930) and the controversy it created with psychologist Géza Révész, author of The Psychology of a Musical Prodigy (1925). One feature shared by the researchers of child prodigies was their frustration at being unable to delve as deeply as they wanted in their studies. All research on child prodigies was to some extent thwarted, as it was interrupted due not to the researcher’s will but to contingencies (music tours, moves to other countries, etc.) in the lives of the children they studied. However, the fact that these studies were thwarted does not mean that they were not fruitful. They benefited new fields such as the psychology of music and psychotechnics, and contributed to raise awareness about the education, childrearing, and working conditions of child prodigies. In the end, this talk will seek to understand how these psychological experiments were lived by the children themselves, and the impact they have had on contemporary notions of giftedness.

Author

• Andrea Graus Ferrer, Milà i Fontanals Institution, Spanish National Research Council