Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science Is the Future ...

[Pages:2]? 2021 American Psychological Association ISSN: 0021-843X

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

2021, Vol. 130, No. 1, 1?2

The Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science Is the Future of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology: An Editorial

Angus W. MacDonald III1, Sherryl H. Goodman2, and David Watson3

1 Department of Psychology, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Current, University of Minnesota 2 Department of Psychology, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2012?2017, Emory University

3 Department of Psychology, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2006 ?2011, University of Notre Dame

This editorial describes the rationale behind changing this journal's title beginning in 2022.

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We have the honor of being the current, and most recent, custodians of an illustrious tradition of clinical science. With this editorial we mark an inflection point in that tradition with the announcement of a new title for the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Beginning with the January 2022 issue, this journal will be known as the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. On such an occasion it is instructive to look back on the path that has brought us here over the course of 115 years and reflect on the issues that guided us to this title change and will continue into the future.

The Journal of Abnormal Psychology was the product of a great effervescence of thought at the turn of the 20th century. Its founding editor, Morton Prince, was an energetic physician specializing in what would come to be psychiatry. The scion of Boston's political elite, Prince lived up to this legacy by founding other long-lived institutions as well, including the American Psychopathological Association and the Harvard Psychological Clinic. For the journal, he wanted its pages to include "such subjects as hysteria, hallucinations, delusions, amnesias, abulias, aphasias, fixed ideas, obsessions, deliria, perversions, emotions and their influence, exaltations, depressions, habit neuroses and psychoses, phenomena of hypnosis, sleep, dreams, automatisms, alterations of personality, multiple personality (Prince's particular specialty), dissociation of consciousness, subconscious phenomena, relation of the mind to physiological processes, neurasthenic and psychasthenic states" (Allport, 1938). The first issue, published in April 1906, would include articles on compulsive behavior, hypnosis, sudden religious conversion, and a critique of a new treatment technique introduced by an Austrian physician, Sigmund Freud (which, the author indicated, was "often less necessary than one might think" [Putnam, 1906]).

Although the precise deliberations are lost to us, the term abnormal had been recently coined. The American Journal of Psychology started categorizing papers as "abnormal psychology"

Angus W. MacDonald III X David Watson X Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Angus W. MacDonald III, Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Elliott Hall, 75 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States. Email: awmacdonald3@

in 1888 (Abnormal, n.d.), differentiating the topic from its Nervous System and Experimental Psychology sections. Wanting to cast such a wide net, Prince could have used terms like insanity, alienism, or medicopsychology, but abnormal suited the climate of the day, suggesting that such conditions are off or away from (ab) right-angled or normal (normalis). He might have used the alternate term psychopathology for the field, which had been in use (at least as the German Psycho-Pathologie) since 1847 (Psychopathology, n.d.). Indeed, 5 years previously, the aforementioned Austrian physician had published on The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens) (Freud, 1901). Perhaps, at the time, the term was still too German or had not been more broadly adopted by Anglophone scholars.

Whatever the original impetus, a tension was implied in the title Journal of Abnormal Psychology that soon required addressing: How was one to know what was normal, and therefore abnormal? Should normalcy not be subject to the same scientific scrutiny? Beginning in 1921, while still under the editorship of Prince, the journal morphed into the Journal of Abnormal Psychology and Social Psychology, with a corresponding increase in its mandate. This addressed normative aspects of behavior, and it also allowed the burgeoning field of social psychology to benefit from psychopathologists' understanding of the dynamics of human nature (Allport & Prince, 1921). This expanded mandate remained for 44 years (although the title was shortened to the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology in 1925) as the two fields grew and matured.

In 1926, soon after this expansion, Prince donated the journal to the American Psychological Association so it might continue in perpetuity. His gift had two stipulations: that "the subject matter of abnormal psychology shall be preserved as the dominant feature" of the journal and that "all profits derived from the publication . . . shall be applied to the improvement and development of The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology with particular reference to the topic of abnormal psychology." Although the journal went through several editors after Prince's death in 1929, they all felt the argument sufficiently compelling to keep these two disciplines in conversation within the journal. Indeed, when mitosis did finally occur in 1965, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology continued to reflect this original vision of keeping social processes and individual differences in conversation, whereas the Journal of Abnormal Psychology continued the volume number-

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MACDONALD, GOODMAN, AND WATSON

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ing, even as it reverted to its original title. This title has remained unchanged from then until now.

Given this deep foundation, the careful selection of the original title, and its role as the field's banner carrier for 115 years, what could impel us to turn from the Journal of Abnormal Psychology as the title for this publication? A major impetus is the relentless progression of the terminology treadmill: the terms abnormal and abnormality now are pejorative tropes. Many colleges and universities have changed the name of their introductory abnormal psychology courses, and in others the professors feel compelled to provide lengthy critiques of the term abnormal in the course title. Within our pages we publish studies about people already stigmatized on top of their day-to-day distress and suffering. How can we honor their stories and efforts?

In addition to the human cost of holding to our previous title, changing the name also reflects our best science. Simply put, the field now appreciates that human diversity does not accommodate normal. Not only are psychiatric disorders common across the lifetime, but we now recognize that broad variation along many axes is natural. For a field that seeks to understand and overcome human suffering, normalcy is not a compelling target. At the same time, human diversity is too broad to be contained-- or constrained-- by the metaphor of abnormality.

The successor title, Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, reflects our editorial boards' best efforts to anticipate, and perhaps avoid, the terminology treadmill. The term psychopathology has been around for almost 2 centuries, and it has not yet accrued stigma. Perhaps this is because it labels the study of mental illness, rather than those who suffer from it. It also acknowledges a sentiment that people with mental illnesses express in a number of different ways--that they suffer from something exceptional, deserving of understanding and treatment. Clinical Science, the other component of the title, recognizes the full continuum of traits, risk factors, stressors, and other exposures can lead to, co-occur with, or are consequences of psychopathology. Both terms reflect our interest in the mechanisms that undergird the suffering of so many.

We think our founder would agree with a change in our title at this point in time. As noted by a contemporary, "Dr. Prince may well be characterized as one who possessed in a marked degree a mind which was ever on the alert for something more to see, something more to learn, or something more to do; and associated with this, a thirst for investigation and for analysis, combined with unending patience and persistent industry; a vivid imagination, controlled, however, by a sound and watchful intelligence . . ." (p. 183; Roback, 1940). We may wish as much for the newly christened Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science and for our field as well. We would do well to be ever on the alert for the next lessons and to have sufficient industry and patience to turn those lessons into contributions to human well-being.

References

Abnormal. (n.d.). Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved October 10, 2020, from

Allport, F. H., & Prince, M. (1921). Editorial announcement. Journal of Abnormal Psychology and Social Psychology, 16(1), 1?5. .org/10.1037/h0064543

Allport, G. W. (1938). The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology: An editorial. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 33(1), 3?13.

Freud, S. (1901). The psychopathology of everyday life. Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens.

Psychopathology. (n.d.). Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved October 10, 2020 from

Putnam, J. J. (1906). Recent experiences in the study and treatment of hysteria at the Massachusetts General Hospital; with remarks on Freud's method of treatment by "psycho-analysis." Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1(1), 26 ? 41.

Roback, A. A. (1940). Morton Prince, 1854 ?1929: A memoir on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his death. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 10(1), 177?184. .1940.tb05673.x

Received November 30, 2020 Accepted November 30, 2020

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