Saul Rosenzweig

Saul Rosenzweig (1907 - 2004) 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 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 or Dodo Bird Hypothesis — a reference to Lewis Carroll'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 taught at Washington University in St. Louis from 1948 until he retired in 1975.

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's movie "A Clockwork Orange".

References

[http://record.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3669.html Primary source: Rosenzweig's Obiturary in the Washington University "Record"]