Amy Tanner

{{Infobox person

| name = Amy Eliza Tanner

| image = Amy Eliza Tanner.jpg

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| birth_date = March 21, 1870

| birth_place = Owatonna, Minnesota

| death_date = February 1, 1956

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| nationality = American

| alma_mater = University of Chicago

| occupation = Psychologist

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Amy Eliza Tanner (March 21, 1870 – February 1, 1956) was an American psychologist who became well known for discrediting the then-famous medium Leonora Piper after Tanner was allowed to attend six séances with a fellow researcher.

Biography

Tanner was born in Owatonna, Minnesota.{{cite book|title=Leaders in Education|author1=Cattell, James McKeen|author1-link=James McKeen Cattell|author2=Cattell, Jaques|author2-link=Jacques Cattell|author3=Ross, Edna Elizabeth|location=Lancaster, PA|publisher=The Science Press|year=1941|page=989|oclc=1515467}} She earned a doctoral degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1898, finishing magna cum laude.{{cite web|url=http://www.skepdic.com/tanner.html |title=Amy Tanner (1870–1956)|date=2011|author=Carroll, Robert Todd|author-link=Robert Todd Carroll|website=The Skeptic's Dictionary|access-date=May 13, 2016}} Following her graduation from the University of Chicago, and unable to find employment elsewhere, she worked as an associate at the university's philosophy department. Four years later, she became a professor of philosophy at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.{{cite web|url=http://www.feministvoices.com/amy-tanner/| title=Profile - Amy Tanner| author=Young, Jacy L.|date=2010|website=Psychology's Feminist Voices |access-date=May 13, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218210257/http://www.feministvoices.com/amy-tanner/|archive-date=18 February 2020|url-status=dead}}

Although she had earned her Ph.D. in philosophy, her interests and her work led her to psychology and social psychology. Her unpublished dissertation was titled Association of Ideas: A Preliminary Study, and she published her subsequent research in psychology journals.

In 1907, Tanner became an "Honorary University Fellow" at Clark University, a position she held until 1916. While at Clark University, she investigated mediumship with the psychologist G. Stanley Hall. She published her findings as sole author in the book Studies in Spiritism (1910) which documented the tests she and Hall had carried out in the séance sittings held with the medium Leonora Piper. Hall and Tanner had proven by tests that the "personalities" of Piper were fictitious creations and not discarnate spirits.{{cite book|author=Tanner, Amy Eliza |title=Studies in Spiritism |location=New York/London |publisher=D. Appleton & Company |year=1910 |oclc=504458472 |url=https://archive.org/details/studiesinspirit02tanngoog }}

She left Clark (and academic work) in 1919, and remained in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was the director of the Worcester Girls Club for many years and represented the local Woman's Club on the Worcester Censorship Board. She purchased the Majestic Theater in Worcester in 1919 and operated it for a few years. She died on February 1, 1956.{{cite news|title=Dr. Amy Tanner's Funeral Saturday|newspaper=Worcester Telegram|date=February 3, 1956}}

Selected publications

{{cite book|title=Studies in Spiritism |location=New York/London |publisher=D. Appleton & Company |year=1910 |oclc=504458472 |url=https://archive.org/details/studiesinspirit02tanngoog }}
{{cite journal|title=The Philosophy of Loyalty by Josiah Royce | journal=The American Journal of Psychology | volume=19 | issue=3 | pages=409–412 |date=July 1908 | doi=10.2307/1413202 | jstor=1413202 }}
{{cite journal|title=Etudes d'Histoire et de Psychologie du Mysticisme, Les grands mystiques chrétiens by Henri Delacroix |journal=The American Journal of Psychology| volume=19 | issue=3 | pages=412–413 |date=July 1908 | doi=10.2307/1413203 | jstor=1413203 | hdl=2027/mdp.39015065943329 | hdl-access=free }}
{{cite journal|title=The Inward Light by H. Fielding Hall |journal=The American Journal of Psychology| volume=19 | issue=3 | pages=413–414 |date=July 1908 | doi=10.2307/1413204 | jstor=1413204 }}
{{cite journal|title=An Illustration of the Psychology of Belief |journal=Psychological Bulletin |volume=4 |issue=2 | pages=33–36 |year=1907 |doi=10.1037/h0073712 |last1=Tanner |first1=Amy E. |url=https://zenodo.org/record/2012589 }}
{{cite journal|title=Glimpses at the Mind of a Waitress |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=48–55 |date=July 1907 |doi=10.1086/211561 |last1=Tanner |first1=Amy E. |s2cid=144324152 }}
{{cite book|title=The Child: His Thinking, Feeling, and Doing | location=Chicago |publisher=Rand McNally |year=1904 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BqFLAAAAMAAJ | via=Google Books | oclc=1031797494 }}
"Association of Ideas: A Preliminary Study." Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, Chicago. (1900)

Amy Tanner

Biography

Selected publications

References

Further reading