Psychology Takes to the Airways: American Radio Psychology Between the Wars, 1926–1939

摘要

Modern American culture has seen a proliferation of radio and television personalities associated with talk therapy and advice-giving within the last 20 years (Epstein Psychology Today 34:5 2001). The origin of radio psychology, however, is the late 1920’s, when radio began to air many promoters of psychology in the context of “public service” programming. Among these individuals were Louis Monash, Arthur Payne, and, perhaps most importantly, Joseph Jastrow. Traditionally-trained psychologists used the new medium of radio in the service of education and adjustment. This article surveys radio psychology, its personalities, and topics in the inter-war period and proposes the significant social support role that radio psychology played during the Great Depression, much as modern talk radio does today (Ricks 1984).