Saul Rosenzweig was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 psychologist

Psychologist

Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...

 and therapist.

Biography

He earned his doctorate from Harvard College in 1932, a friend and classmate of B.F. Skinner. He worked at Worcester State Hospital and Clark University before becoming the chief psychologist at the Western State Psychiatric Institute.

Rosenzweig taught at Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...

 from 1948 until he retired in 1975.
He died on August 9, 2004, at the age of 97.

Work

Rosenzweig became well known after publishing a paper discussing 'common factors' underlying competing approaches to psychotherapy. He argued that all models of therapy could be equally successful, due to competent therapists sharing common factors that aided their patients. His premise became known as the Dodo Bird Verdict

Dodo bird verdict

The Dodo bird verdict is a phrase sometimes used when evaluating different techniques used in psychotherapy.-Psychological Significance:In Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , at a certain point a number of characters become wet. In order to dry themselves, the Dodo decided to issue a...

 or Dodo Bird Hypothesis — a reference to Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...

's Alice in Wonderland, in which a dodo bird declares at the end of a race designed to dry everyone off: "Everybody has won and all must have prizes."

Rosenzweig's study of aggression lead to the development of the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study, a test of latent hostility; the test became popular in Europe and was featured in Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...

's movie A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange is a 1962 dystopian novella by Anthony Burgess. The novel contains an experiment in language: the characters often use an argot called "Nadsat", derived from Russian....

.

A collection of Rosenzweig's papers has been maintained in the Archives of the History of American Psychology, at the University of Akron

University of Akron

The University of Akron is a coeducational public research university located in Akron, Ohio, United States. The university is part of the University System of Ohio. It was founded in 1870 as a small college affiliated with the Universalist Church. In 1913 ownership was transferred to the City of...

. This comprises a collection of papers from 1929 to 2003, in five series:

1. Correspondence
2. Foundation for Idiodynamics Personality Theory, and Creativity in Literature
3. Psychoarchaeology
4. Sexology
   Sexology
   Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behavior, and function. The term does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sex, such as political analysis or social criticism....
   
   
5. Reprints