In this sequel to his acclaimed double biography, John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener, Steve Heims recounts another fascinating story in twentieth-century intellectual history - a series of encounters that captured a moment of transformation in the human sciences. Focusing on the Macy Foundation conferences, which were designed to forge connections between wartime science and postwar social science, Heims's richly detailed account explores the dialogues that emerged among a remarkable group that included Wiener, von Neumann, Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, Warren McCulloch, Kurt Lewin, Molly Harrower, and Lawrence Kubie. Heims shows how those dialogues shaped ideas in psychology, sociology, anthropology, and psychiatry.
Author(s): Steve Joshua Heims
Publisher: The MIT Press
Year: 1993
Language: English
Commentary: From: https://monoskop.org/File:Heims_Steve_Joshua_The_Cybernetics_Group_1991.pdf Also available at: https://ia803005.us.archive.org/35/items/cyberneticsgroups/The%20Cybernetics%20Group%20-%20Steve%20Joshua%20Heims.pdf
Pages: 348
Tags: Cybernetics; Cybernetics History
Preface Vl
Acknowledgments Xl
1 Midcentury, U.S.A. 1
2 March 8-9, 1946 14
3 Describing "Embodiments of Mind": McCulloch and His Cohorts 31
4 Raindancer, Scout, and Talking Chief 52
5 Logic Clarifying and Logic Obscuring 90
6 Problems ofDeranged Minds, Artists, and psychiatrists 115
7 The Macy Foundation and Worldwide Mental Health
8 Lazarsfeld, Lewin, and Political Conditions 180
9 Gestalten Go to Bits, 1: From Lewin to Bavelas 201
10 Gestalten Go to Bits, 2: Kohler's Visit 224
11 Metaphor and Synthesis 248
12 Then and Now 273
Appendix
Members ofthe Cybernetics Group 285
Notes 287
Index 327
