Having asked the approximately 1500 living Fellows of CASBS to write for the web site at the time of the 60th birthday of the Center and having received about 30 wonderful responses, I thought it would only be fit and…
Blog Archives
Reflections on a Ghost in Study #7
Katherine Isbister, Class of 2014-15
I remember the sunny autumn day in 2014 when I got my office key, standing there, scanning the ‘Ghosts in the Study’ list. There was a pleasurable shock of recognition when I saw Joseph Weizenbaum’s name for the year 1973.…
My Year at CASBS
Maryanne Wolf, Class of 2014-15
“It is a universal truth” that no Fellow wants to write a summary of their time at the Center for Advanced Studies for the Behavioral Sciences( CASBS) because that would presage the reality of their leaving. Indeed, I have personally…
Heavenly, Supportive, Productive, Delicious, Sublime
Estelle Freedman, Class of 2009-10
I finally realized why I’ve had so much trouble setting down in words my thoughts about CASBS – I think it is too painful to contemplate the joys of my year there because they are no more! And I feel…
Like a True Thrill, Both Delicious and Terrifying
Cecilia L. Ridgeway, Class of 2005-06, 2012-13
I was first a CASBS fellow in 2005-06. As a Stanford faculty member since 1991, I had long viewed the Center as a kind of academic nirvana that I was determined to eventually inhabit for a year. From the valley…
The Stream of Consciousness and Beyond in Ulysses
Julia Rothenberg (Class of 2013-14) on Erwin R. Steinberg (Class of 1970-71)
Erwin R. Steinberg (Professor of English and Rhetoric, Carnegie Mellon University 1946-2007) was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences for 1970-71. He used the year to develop his Ph.D. dissertation into a book,…
CASBS: Effects on Me and Observations for the Future Kenneth J. Arrow, Class of 1956-57
(Talk given at the 60th Anniversary Event on Nov 9, 2014) Basic inspiration: a unity of the social sciences with psychology; hence the term, “behavioral” – very much inspired by Talcott Parsons. Motivations: a mixture of psychoanalysis, rational behavior. Social…
On Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Class of 1955-56
Albert Rothenberg M.D, Class of 2013-14 & 1986-87
One of the earliest women invited to spend a year (1956) at CASBS, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann was a pioneering psychoanalyst who spent the major portion of her professional life treating psychotic patients. Born in Germany, she escaped the Hitler Anschluss in…
Serendipity, CASBS, and Me
Charles S. Carver, Class of 2014-15
Of the many illustrious documents produced during Fellowships at CASBS, very few are better known among psychologists than the slim, engaging volume that was published in 1960 by George Miller, Eugene Galanter, and Karl Pribram. The book was called Plans…
Fire on the Hill: The Making of a Modern Classic
Kamala Visweswaran (Class of 2014-15) on M.N. Srinivas, Class of 1964-65 & 1969-70
I came to know of MN Srinivas as a UC Berkeley student in a course on “Social Stratification in India” taught by Anthropology Professor Gerald Berreman (a CASBS Fellow in 1976). Best known for his concept of “sanskritization” which explained…