Triumph and tragedy in academia

pp. 83-122

in: Jörgen Pind, Edgar Rubin and psychology in Denmark, Berlin, Springer, 2014

Abstract

After finishing his M.A. at the University of Copenhagen in 1910, Rubin went to Göttingen to further his education in psychology in the laboratory of Georg Elias Müller (1850–1934). Müller asked Rubin to look into the recognition of figures as part of ongoing work in the laboratory on memory. Rubin, however, took this project into a completely different direction, resulting in one of the great classics of perceptual psychology, his thesis Synsoplevede Figurer [Visually experienced figures] where the figure–ground distinction was first elucidated. Major findings of the thesis and Rubin's phenomenological approach are discussed in detail in the chapter. The chapter also describes the difficulties the University of Copenhagen had in finding a successor to Harald Høffding upon his retirement.