William Ryan (psychologist)

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1923|09|20}}

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| death_date = {{death date|2002|06|07}}

| death_place = Boston, Massachusetts

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| known_for = Idea of "Victim blaming"

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| education = Boston University

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| discipline = Psychologist

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| workplaces = Boston College

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| notable_works = Blaming the Victim

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William J. Ryan, Jr. (September 20, 1923 – June 7, 2002) was a psychologist, civil rights activist and author. He is best known for his exposure of the sociological phenomenon of "blaming the victim", which was first published in his 1971 book of the same name. Ryan's work is considered a major structuralist rebuttal to the Moynihan Report.{{cite magazine |last=Sanneh |first=Kelefa |title=Don't Be Like That |magazine=The New Yorker |date=9 February 2015 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/dont-like |access-date=9 April 2017}} Moynihan's report placed most of the blame for African-American poverty rates on the rise of single-parent households, which Ryan rejected as an example of blaming the victim.

Early life

Ryan was born in Everett, Massachusetts on September 20 1923, the son of William J. Ryan and Marion C. Ryan (Evans), and was subsequently raised in Everett.{{cite news |last=Long |first=Tom |title=William J. Ryan; Fought Bias Against the Poor, 78 |date=11 June 2002 |newspaper=Boston Globe}} He joined the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, in which he served as a non-combatant, as a cryptographer in the Caribbean, ‘doing coding and decoding’.{{cite book |editor1-last=Lykes |editor1-first=M. Brinton |editor2-last=Banuazizi |editor2-first=Ali |editor3-last=Liem |editor3-first=Ramsay |editor4-last=Morris |editor4-first=Michael |title=Myths about the powerless: contesting social inequalities |date=1996 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |isbn=1-56639--422-8 |page=353 |chapter=A conversation between William Ryan and M. Brinton Lykes}} On leaving the army, at the age of twenty-five, he was able to enter college (possibly Boston University) because of the 1944 GI Bill of Rights, which paid full tuition for veterans in the educational institutions of their choice. At the end of the course, he had become interested in psychology, in which he obtained a degree. Subsequently, he obtained staff positions in Boston Psychopathic Hospital, the South Shore Guidance Center and Mount Aubum Hospital.{{cite journal |title=Contributors to This Issue |journal=Psychiatric Quarterly Supplement |date=1963 |volume=37-38 |page=384}} In 1951, Ryan married Phyllis Milgroom (Phyllis M. Ryan), a daughter of Russian immigrants. She was a graduate of Northeastern University, a psychiatric social worker in the local state mental health system and, like him, a civil rights activist. In 1958, he obtained a PhD from Boston University in clinical psychology.{{cite news |title=William J. Ryan, 78, Sociologist; Explored the Blaming of Victims |newspaper=The New York Times |date=13 June 2002 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/13/us/william-j-ryan-78-sociologist-explored-the-blaming-of-victims.html |access-date=9 April 2017}}

Career

Shortly after having obtained his PhD, Ryan realized that he really wasn't interested in clinical psychology. Subsequently, he became interested in social psychology and community psychology. Then he also became interested in social issues, social problems and equality.Lykes et al, 1996: 354.

By 1965, Ryan had become an academic in the faculty of Harvard Medical School Laboratory of Community Psychiatry.{{cite journal |last1=Broskowski |first1=Anthony |last2=Khajavi |first2=Farrokh |title=Alumni of the Harvard Laboratory of Community Psychiatry |journal=American Journal of Community Psychology |date=1973 |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=62-75 |doi=10.1007/BF00881247 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00881247 |access-date=18 March 2024|url-access=subscription }} In 1969, he became an academic in Boston College, in which he became Professor of Psychology and in which he served as an employee for 25 years.{{cite journal |last1=M.S. |title=46 mark retirement or 25 years at B.C. |journal=Boston College Chronicle |date=1994 |volume=2 |issue=18 |page=12 May |url=https://newspapers.bc.edu/?a=d&d=bcchronicle19940512-01.2.22&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------#documentdisplayleftpanesectionleveltabcontent |access-date=27 January 2025}}

In 1993, Ryan received an award for his distinguished contribution to theory & research in community psychology from the Society for Community Research and Action: Division 27 of the American Psychological Association.{{cite journal |last1=Albee |first1=George W. |title=The 1993 Society for Community Research and Action Award for Distinguished Contributions to Theory and Research: William Ryan |journal=American Journal of Community Psychology |date=1994 |volume=22 |issue=1 |page=21-23 |doi=10.1007/BF02506814 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02506814|url-access=subscription }} However, in 1996, he concluded that 'unfortunately psychology has become the science of understanding internal individual differences, which leads to kinds of ideological distortions that support inequality.'Lykes et al, 1996: 366.

He died in a Boston hospital on June 7, 2002.

Publications

=Articles=

(With Saul Cooper and Bellenden R. Hutcheson) {{cite journal |last1=Ryan |first1=William |title=Classroom screening for emotional disturbance |journal=American Psychologist |date=1959 |volume=14 |page=341}}
{{cite journal |last1=Ryan |first1=William| title=Savage discovery: The Moynihan Report |journal=The Nation |date= 1965|volume=201 |issue=22 November |page=380-384}}Reprinted in Rainwater and Yancey (1967: 457-466), see below under 'Further reading'.
{{cite journal |last1=Ryan |first1=William |author-mask=—— |title=The new genteel racism |journal=The Crisis |date=1965|volume=72 |issue=10 |page=623-631, 644 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xFcEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22The+new+genteel+racism%22&pg=PA623}}
{{cite journal |last1=Ryan |first1=William |author-mask=—— |title=Citizens in mental health--what are they for? |journal=Mental Hygiene |date=1966 |volume=50 |issue=4 |page=597-600}} An extract entitled "Citizen" and Mental Health' is available at [http://#56%20-%20Rehabilitation%20record%20v.%208%201967.%20-%20Full%20View%20|%20HathiTrust%20Digital%20Library Rehabilitation Record]. 1967. 8 (March-April): 6. Accessed 8 December 2024.
{{cite journal |last1=Ryan |first1=William |display-authors=etal |title= Feedback from our readers |journal=Trans-action |date= 1967 |volume=4 |issue=3 |page=62-64 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03180043 |access-date=6 December 2024}}
{{cite journal |last1=Ryan |first1=William |title=Community care in historical perspective: Implications for mental health services and professionals |journal=Canada's Mental Health |date=1969|volume=Supplement |issue=60 |page=March-April}}
{{cite journal |last1=Ryan |first1=William |author-mask=—— |title=Blaming the victim: The folklore of cultural deprivation |journal=This Magazine is About Schools |date=1971|volume=5 (Spring) |issue=2 |page=97-117}} (See [https://www.connexions.org/CxLibrary/CX19153.htm Connexions]. Accessed 8 December 2024.)
{{cite journal |last1=Ryan |first1=William |author-mask=—— |title=Emotional disorder as a social problem: Implications for mental health programs |journal=American Journal of Orthopsychiatry |date=1971| volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=638–645 |pmid=5558616 }}Reprinted in {{cite book |editor1-last=Denner |editor1-first=Bruce |editor2-last=Price |editor2-first=Richard H. |title=Community Mental Health Social Action and Inaction |date=1973 |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Windton |location=New York |isbn=0-03-085651-5 |page=22-30 |url=https://archive.org/details/communitymentalh0000denn/page/n5/mode/2up |access-date=8 December 2024}}
{{cite journal |last1=Ryan |first1=William |author-mask=—— |title=Unsocialized medicine |journal=Contemporary Psychology |date=1971 |volume=XVI |issue=4 |page=256-258}}
{{cite journal |last1=Ryan |first1=William |author-mask=—— |title=Many cooks, brave men, apples, and oranges: How people think about equality |journal=American Journal of Community Psychology |date=1994|volume=22 |issue=1 |page=25-35 }}

=Chapters=

{{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=William |editor1-last=Bloom |editor1-first=Bernard L. |editor2-last=Buck |editor2-first=Dorothy P. |title=Preventive services in Mental Health Programs: Proceedings of the Mental Health Institute at Salt Lake City, Utah, May 31- June 2, 1967 |date=1967 |publisher=Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education |location=Boulder, Colorado |chapter=Preventive Services in Mental Health Programs}}
{{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=William |author-mask=—— |editor1-last=Ryan |editor1-first=William |title=Distress in the city; essays on the design and administration of urban mental health services |date=1969 |publisher=The Press of Case Western Reserve University |location=Cleveland, Ohio |url=https://archive.org/details/distressincityes0000ryan/page/n7/mode/2up |access-date=10 December 2024 |chapter=A new mental health agenda}}
{{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=William |author-mask=—— |editor1-last=Ryan |editor1-first=William |title=Distress in the city; essays on the design and administration of urban mental health services |date=1969 |publisher=The Press of Case Western Reserve University |location=Cleveland, Ohio |url=https://archive.org/details/distressincityes0000ryan/page/n7/mode/2up |access-date=10 December 2024 |chapter=Distress in the city: A summary report of the Boston Mental Health Survey}}
{{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=William |author-mask=—— |editor1-last=Kalz |editor1-first=A.J. |title=The Social Welfare Forum 1971 Official Proceedings, 98th Annual Forum, National Conference on Social Welfare, Dallas, Texas, May 16-May 21, 1971 |date=1971 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |chapter=The social welfare client: Blaming the victim}}

=Monographs=

{{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=William |last2=Morris |first2=Laura B. |title=Child welfare problems and potentials: A study of intake of child welfare agencies in metropolitan Boston. Monograph III |date=1967 |publisher=Massachusetts Committee on Children and Youth |location=Boston, Massachusetts}}
(With Ali Banuazizi) {{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=William |title=Mental health planning in metropolitan areas Community Psychology Monograph No. 1 |date=1972 |publisher=Boston College |location=Boston}}
(With Allan Sloan, Mania Seferi and Elaine Werby) {{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=William |title=All in together: An evaluation of mixed-income multi-family housing |date=1974 |publisher=Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency |location=Boston}}

=Books=

{{cite book |editor1-last=Ryan |editor1-first=William |author-mask=—— |title=Distress in the city |date=1969 |publisher=The Press of Case Western Reserve University |location=Cleveland, Ohio |url=https://archive.org/details/distressincityes0000ryan/page/n7/mode/2up |access-date=27 January 2025}}
{{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=William | title=Blaming the Victim | url=https://archive.org/details/blamingvictim00ryan_0 | url-access=registration |date=1971| publisher=Pantheon | location=New York | isbn=978-0-85514-010-6 }}
{{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=William |author-mask=—— | title=Blaming the victim |date=1976|publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-394-72226-9 |edition=Revised, updated}}
{{cite book |last1=Ryan |first1=William |author-mask=—— | title=Equality |date=1982| publisher=Vintage Books | location=New York | isbn=978-0-394-71185-0 }}