Table Of ContentHugo Munsterberg
on Film
The Photoplay:
A Psychological Study
and Other Writings
Edited by
ALLAN LANGDALE
Routledge
New York London
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Contents
Acknowledgments v
Editor's Introduction
S(t)imulation of Mind: The Film Theory of Hugo Miinsterberg
Allan Langdale I
The Photoplay: A Psychological Study
Introduction
I The Outer Development of the Moving Pictures 45
2 The Inner Development of the Moving Pictures 54
Part 1: The Psychology of the Photoplay
3 Depth and Movement
4 Attention
5
Memory and Imagination
6 Emotions
Part II: The Aesthetics of the Photoplay
7 The Purpose of Art I09
8 The Means of the Various Arts I20
9 The Means of the Photoplay I28
I 0 The Demands of the Photoplay I39
II The Function of the Photoplay IJI
iii
Contents
Additional Writings and Texts
Margaret Miinsterberg on The Photoplay
Why We Go to the Movies
Hugo Munsterberg
Peril to Childhood in the Movies
Hugo Munsterberg
Interview with Hugo Miinsterberg 20I
Speech on the Paramount Pictographs
204
Index 207
iv
Acknowledgments
There have been several people who encouraged me in my plan to
offer a new edition of Hugo Miinsterberg's The Photoplay: A Psycho
logical Study. My first exposure to the text was several years ago in
Edward Branigan's film theory class at the University of California at
Santa Barbara, and Edward's energetic promotion played a central
role in the realization of the project. Similarly, Constance Penley has
for many years advocated my interest in film studies, and Chuck
Wolfe helped greatly with his support during my search for a pub
lisher. Edward Branigan, Chuck Wolfe, Melinda Szaloky, Lisa Parks,
and Dore Carter lent invaluable advice during the editing process, and
I am very thankful for their efforts.
I would also like to thank William Germano for embracing the
proposal and making it possible for a new generation of film scholars
and students of the history of psychology to have access to The Photo
play and to these supplementary writings of Hugo Miinsterberg. Joe
Palladino deserves mention for his kind encouragement, while Chris
Husted can be credited with applying unrelenting pressure on me to
undertake the reissue. They all have my sincere gratitude.
I am indebted to the staff of the Special Collections department of
the Boston Public Library who were generous with their Miinsterberg
archive materials. I would also like to extend thanks to Frank A. J. L.
James of the Royal Institution for assisting me with an important ref
erence and the mysterious web-based personage "Mr. X," who
tracked down another article I had trouble locating. The book could
not have been completed without the kindness of Suzanne and Reece
Duca and the unwavering support of my mother, Nancy. Finally, I
would like to thank the students of the film studies department at
UCSB, who have been a source of continual energy and inspiration.
v
S(t)imulation of Mind:
The Film Theory of Hugo Mi.insterberg
Allan Langdale
... films have the appeal of a presence and of a proximity that strikes
the masses and fills the movie theaters. This phenomenon, which is
related to the impression of reality, is naturally of great aesthetic sig
nificance, but its basis is first of all psychological.1
-Christian Metz
In July of 1930 Welford Beaton published an article provocatively
titled "In Darkest Hollywood" in The New Republic. In it he enthusi
astically champions a book, published 14 years before, which sadly
seems to have already disappeared from sight:
Neither in the main Hollywood library nor in any of its branches can
a copy of this book be found. It is not for sale in a Hollywood book
store. I have not encountered a dozen people who have read it, or
two dozen who have heard of it. The film industry is one of tremen
dous proportions, yet this great contribution to its mentality is out
of print.2
The great contribution Beaton was referring to was The Photoplay: A
Psychological Study, written by one of the leading figures in the field
of psychology, Hugo Miinsterberg.3
Forty years after Beaton's lament, in the introduction to the 1970
Dover reprint of Miinsterberg's book, Richard Griffith also noted the
book's disappearance.4 One could write those same words of Beaton's
today, but in the thirty-one year interim since the Dover edition there
has been modest but significant attention devoted to Miinsterberg in
Hugo Miinsterberg on Film
general and to The Photoplay in particular.5 The book is regarded by
many to be the first serious piece of film theory, and is one of the first
books to argue for the potentialities of film as an independent art
form. 6 Few would dispute its important place in the history of film
theory. Yet this significant piece of early film theory has been largely
unavailable to the current generation of film students and scholars-to
say nothing of students of psychology and philosophy for whom this
book should also hold substantial interest. It is with this in mind that
we have published a new edition of The Photoplay along with a num
ber of supplementary writings by Miinsterberg on film, none pub
lished in English after their original appearance in the years 1915 to
1917.7 Included is an interview as well as a speech by Miinsterberg8
and a piece entitled "Why We Go to the Movies," which is an excur
sion into film that prefigures The Photoplay.9 Another article, "Peril to
Childhood in the Movies," deals with the issue of the effects of film
violence on children. This essay not only reflects attitudes towards
film violence in the early 20th century, but is a revealing expression of
Miinsterberg's social idealism.10 Also included is the section on The
Photoplay from Margaret Miinsterberg's 1922 biography of her father,
an admiring remembrance composed by a daughter attempting to
record a definitive and positive portrayal of a man America had since
turned its back upon.11
Today, relatively few people in the disciplines of film studies or
psychology know very much about Hugo Miinsterberg and yet around
1915 he was probably the most famous academic in the United States.
His books were widely read and his ideas discussed in broad circles.12
One of the first students of the emerging school of experimental
psychology in his youth, Miinsterberg later distinguished himself as
the founding father of applied psychology.13 Miinsterberg is well
known for his books and articles on the subject, including Vocation
and Learning (1912), Psychology and Industrial Efficiency (1912), Busi
ness Psychology (1915), and Psychology: General and Applied (1916).14
He developed psychological tests to help the Boston Elevated Rail
way Company find the least accident prone drivers for their trolleys,
2
S(t)imulation of Mind
and composed similar experiments for the Hamburg American Ship
ping Company to test for those persons who would make the best
ship captains.15
To place The Photoplay in a historical and biographical context,
some details of Miinsterberg's life and career should be considered.16
Hugo Miinsterberg was born in Danzig in 1863, the son of a Jewish
lumber merchant, Moritz Miinsterberg, and his second wife Anna.
He had two older brothers, Otto and Emil-who had been born to
Moritz's previous wife, Rosalie-and one younger brother, Oskar.17
The family's central tragedies were the deaths, first, of Rosalie, then
of Anna in 1875 when Hugo was twelve years old. This loss, accord
ing to Phyllis Keller in her largely psycho-biographical account of
Miinsterberg's life, had profound effects on his personality and atti
tudes.18 He developed a great desire to please his father-perhaps in
consolation for their mutual loss-but he also developed a fear of
abandonment and rejection, a fear that, as we shall see, was ultimately
realized on a grand scale later in his life. His early education was
eclectic and ranged between arts and sciences; he studied languages,
music, wrote stories and poetry, and was interested in archaeology,
botany, and read widely in literature. In the years after the death of
his father in 1881, Miinsterberg adopted a strident nationalism and
began to idealize the role of culture in the perfecting of German soci
ety.19 He also embraced scholarship and increasingly began to identify
himself with academic success, being the only one of the Miinsterberg
sons to complete his Gymnasium training and to pass his Abitur exam
inations, thus opening the door to an academic career.20 Along with
his two younger brothers, Miinsterberg was baptized shortly after the
death of his father; a decision, as Matthew Hale notes, that was not at
all uncommon in German society in the late 19th century since adher
ing to one's Judaism could severely curtail a young man's institutional
ambitions, including attending a university. 21
Miinsterberg's academic training began in 1882 with the study of
medicine in Leipzig where, in the summer of 1883, he heard lectures
by the major figure in German experimental psychology, Wilhelm
3
