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Karl Bühler was a prominent German psychologist and linguist known for his work in Gestalt psychology and as a founder of the Würzburg School of psychology. In linguistics, he is highly regarded for his "Organon model" of communication, which outlines three fundamental functions of language: expression, appeal, and representation. His masterwork, "Sprachtheorie" (Theory of Language), published in 1934, is a cornerstone in the fields of linguistics, semiotics, and the philosophy of language.
Karl Bühler was born on May 27, 1879, in Meckesheim, Baden, Germany. He came from a modest background, with his father working as a railway clerk and small peasant, and his mother from Catholic peasant stock. Bühler received a scholarship to the Tauberbischofsheim Catholic Gymnasium for his early education.
His academic journey began in 1899 when he enrolled in medical school at the University of Freiburg, where he earned his doctorate in medicine in 1903 with a dissertation on the physiological theories of color vision. Demonstrating a broad range of interests, he simultaneously pursued studies in psychology and philosophy, obtaining a second degree in psychology in 1904. He furthered his philosophical studies at the University of Strassburg, where he also received a philosophy doctorate in 1905.
This early period was crucial for the development of his intellectual interests. He worked as an assistant to prominent figures like Johannes von Kries at Freiburg and, significantly, to Oswald Külpe at the University of Würzburg in 1906. His time with Külpe was particularly influential, as it connected him with the Würzburg School of psychology, known for its focus on the psychology of thought processes. During this time, he conducted experimental studies that formed the basis for his habilitation (a post-doctoral qualification allowing one to teach at a university) as a docent in philosophy.
Bühler followed Külpe to the University of Bonn in 1909 and then to Munich in 1913, where he continued to develop his foundational ideas in areas like Gestalt theory, the psychology of thought, and developmental psychology. In Munich, he met Charlotte Malachowski, another budding psychologist, whom he married in 1916. Their intellectual partnership would become a significant aspect of their future work, particularly in Vienna.
After his foundational work in Munich, Karl Bühler's career took a significant turn when he accepted a full professorship of philosophy, with a special focus on psychology and experimental pedagogy, at the University of Vienna in 1922. This period, often referred to as the "Vienna School of Psychology," was incredibly fruitful for him and his wife, Charlotte Bühler, who also joined the faculty. Together, they established the Vienna Psychological Institute, which rapidly gained international recognition as a leading center for psychological research.
During his tenure in Vienna (1922-1938), Bühler continued to expand upon his earlier interests, making substantial contributions to several fields. He delved deeply into developmental psychology, publishing "The Mental Development of the Child" (1918), a highly influential textbook that remained a standard in German-speaking countries for decades. He challenged established notions, such as Freud's pleasure principle, proposing broader categories of "pleasure of functioning" and "pleasure of creating."
A major intellectual pursuit for Bühler in this period was the philosophy of language and communication theory. Building on ideas he had been developing since 1918, he published his magnum opus, Sprachtheorie: Die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache (Theory of Language: The Representational Function of Language) in 1934.
Expression (Ausdrucksfunktion): Reflecting the speaker's internal state or emotions.
Appeal (Appellfunktion): Aiming to influence the listener's behavior.
Representation (Darstellungsfunktion): Conveying objective information about things or states of affairs.
This model profoundly influenced subsequent linguistic and semiotic theories, including the work of Roman Jakobson. Bühler also explored concepts like deixis (the use of words whose meaning depends on the context, e.g., "here," "now," "I") and the symbolic nature of language.
Beyond focusing on discrete empirical investigations and theoretical models, Karl Bühler possessed a keen awareness of the overarching intellectual landscape of psychology, particularly the methodological dilemmas that plagued the discipline during the early 20th century. His 1927 treatise, Die Krise der Psychologie (The Crisis of Psychology), stands as a testament to this meta-scientific concern. At a time when psychology was still striving to establish itself as a rigorous scientific discipline, it was beset by deep divisions and ideological clashes. Different schools of thought, such as structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, and psychoanalysis, often operated in isolation, promoting their own methodologies and frequently dismissing the validity of others. This fragmentation led to what Bühler perceived as a "crisis" – a lack of theoretical coherence and a unified understanding of the human psyche.
In Die Krise der Psychologie, Bühler did not simply critique these divisions; he actively sought to bridge them by advocating for a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach to psychological inquiry. He proposed an integrated framework that acknowledged and incorporated three crucial, yet often compartmentalized, dimensions of human experience. Firstly, he emphasized the experiential aspect, which encompassed the subjective, introspective elements of consciousness, including thoughts, feelings, and perceptions – a domain often explored by Würzburg School and Gestalt psychology. Secondly, he underscored the importance of the behavioral aspect, recognizing the observable actions and reactions of individuals, a focus championed by the burgeoning behaviorist movement. Finally, and perhaps most innovatively for his time, Bühler highlighted the cultural-achievement aspect. This dimension recognized that human psychology is profoundly shaped by societal structures, language, art, science, and other cultural products.
Bühler, Karl (1934). Sprachtheorie. Oxford, England: Fischer.
This entry refers to the original German publication of Karl Bühler's seminal work, Sprachtheorie, which translates to "Theory of Language." Published in 1934 by Fischer (likely Gustav Fischer Verlag, a prominent German academic publisher, though the "Oxford, England" location might indicate a distribution or co-publication arrangement for international reach), this book laid the foundation for Bühler's "Organon model" of language. It is the definitive text where he introduced and meticulously elaborated his tripartite model of language functions—expression, appeal, and representation—and explored concepts like deixis and the contextual nature of meaning, significantly influencing the fields of linguistics, semiotics, and communication theory.
The "Vienna period," spanning from 1922 to 1938, represents the zenith of Karl Bühler's intellectual and professional life. During these sixteen years, he held a prestigious full professorship at the University of Vienna, where he not only conducted groundbreaking research but also fostered a vibrant academic environment. This era was characterized by an explosion of scholarly output across diverse fields of psychology, solidifying his reputation as a polymath. Beyond his personal research, Bühler was a dedicated and influential educator, meticulously guiding numerous doctoral candidates through their dissertations. Among his most famous students during this time was the burgeoning philosopher Karl Popper, whose later work on falsifiability in science owes some subtle intellectual debts to the rigorous thought and critical approach championed by Bühler. The University of Vienna, under his and Charlotte Bühler's leadership in establishing and cultivating the Psychological Institute, became a magnet for scholars worldwide, cementing its status as a premier center for psychological inquiry.
However, this period of immense productivity and intellectual flourishing was brutally truncated by the escalating political turmoil in Europe. The insidious rise of Nazism, culminating in Germany's annexation of Austria—the "Anschluss"—in March 1938, had catastrophic consequences for Jewish intellectuals and opponents of the regime, regardless of their background. Karl Bühler, though not Jewish, was a prominent liberal academic whose work stood in stark contrast to the emerging Nazi ideology. Consequently, he became a target and was arrested by the Gestapo. His detention, lasting several harrowing weeks, was a terrifying ordeal that underscored the immediate and severe threat to his life and freedom. This traumatic experience left an indelible mark. Upon his release, Bühler and his wife, Charlotte, were left with no choice but to abandon their established lives, their prestigious positions, and their extensive research infrastructure in Vienna. They were forced to seek refuge, initially finding a temporary haven in Norway before embarking on the challenging journey to the United States in 1939. This forced emigration constituted a profoundly difficult and disruptive transition, marking an abrupt end to an incredibly productive chapter and ushering in a period where Bühler, despite his immense intellectual stature, faced an uphill battle to regain his footing and fully re-establish his academic standing in an entirely new cultural and intellectual landscape.
Karl Bühler's forced emigration from Austria in 1938 marked a profoundly challenging period in his career. The intellectual vibrancy and institutional support he had enjoyed in Vienna, where he had built a world-renowned psychological institute, were abruptly shattered. He and Charlotte Bühler first found refuge in Oslo, Norway, before eventually settling in the United States in 1939.
Life in America presented significant obstacles for Bühler. At 60 years old, he faced the arduous task of re-establishing himself in a new academic system, culture, and language. Despite his international renown, he struggled to secure a position commensurate with his previous stature. He taught at several institutions, including the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota, and the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and later as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical School of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he also served as a Consulting Psychologist at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital.
While he continued to work and publish, the quantity and scope of his output in the U.S. never reached the prolific levels of his Vienna years. The disruption, loss of his extensive research environment, and the need to adapt to new circumstances undoubtedly took a toll. His intellectual interests, however, remained broad. He continued to explore aspects of spatial orientation in humans and animals, and in 1960, he published his last book, Das Gestaltprinzip im Leben des Menschen und der Tiere (The Gestalt Principle in the Life of Humans and Animals). This work saw him return to his fundamental concerns about the relationship between biology and psychology, and the interplay between life and thought, even incorporating ideas from the then-emerging field of cybernetics.
Despite the difficulties, Bühler's legacy continued to unfold. While his later years were marked by a relative quietude compared to his earlier, more dynamic periods, his earlier contributions to developmental psychology, the psychology of thought, and especially his groundbreaking work on the theory of language, solidified his enduring place as one of the most significant figures in 20th-century psychology and linguistics. Karl Bühler passed away on October 24, 1963, in Los Angeles, California.
By the time the child can draw more that scribble, by the age of four or five years, an already well-formed body of conceptual knowledge formulated in language dominates his memory and controls his graphic work. Drawings are graphic accounts of essentially verbal processes. As an essentially verbal education gains control, the child abandons his graphic efforts and relies almost entirely on words. Language has first spoilt drawing and then swallowed it up completely. - Karl Buhler
Notes
Thomas Sturm: "Bühler and Popper: Kantian therapies for the crisis in psychology," in: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 43 (2012), pp. 462–472.
Reboul, Anne (August 13, 2014). Mind, Values, and Metaphysics: Philosophical Essays in Honor of Kevin Mulligan. Vol. 1. Springer. p. 364. ISBN 9783319041995. OCLC 888144508.
"Charlotte Bühler". www.charlotte-buehler-institut.at Charlotte Bühler Institut. Retrieved 2022-01-29.
References
Bugental, J F; Wegrocki, H J; Murphy, G; Thomae, H; Allport, GW; Ekstein, R; Garvin, PL (1966), "Symposium on Karl Bühler's contributions to psychology.", The Journal of General Psychology, vol. 75, no. 2d Half (published Oct 1966), pp. 181–219, doi:10.1080/00221309.1966.9710366, PMID 5339566
Bolger, H (1964), "Karl Buhler: 1879-1963", The American Journal of Psychology, vol. 77 (published Dec 1964), pp. 674–8, PMID 14251983