Harry Miles Johnson (1885–1953) took his Ph.D. under John B. Watson at Johns Hopkins University. During World War I Johnson was the first “aviation psychologist” and did pioneering research in vision, accident prevention, and sleep. He founded the Ph.D. experimental psychology program at Tulane University. He was an acerbic critic of psychology from a position of “objective empiricism.” This position was modulated by his beliefs in the importance of applications of psychology and an emphasis on underlying philosophical issues. Despite a long and productive career, Harry M. Johnson is little remembered in the history of American psychology. This paper examines aspects of this paradox.
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