| Description | 2- folders of correspondence and typed documents concerning Dr. Boris Semeonoff (1910-1998), British Psychological Society President for the year 1968/69 and member of the British Psychological Society (BPS) Publication committee.
Details include:
1- purple folder containing typed correspondence concerning BPS Publication Committee matters from:
Sir Cyril Burt, 1953-1954
D.W.Harding, Bedford College, 1953-1954
H.J. Eysenck, Institute of Psychiatry, 1953 and a 4-page typed proposal
Peter McKeller, Aberdeen 1953
C.W.Valentine, 1953-1954 and a 7-page typed memorandum for the committee
Typed documents concerning suggestions for journal committees and other committee matters
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1- orange folder of reminiscences as follows:
3- 4-page typed documents entitled 'Craik at Edinburgh'
41- page handwritten reminiscences entitled 'Psychology at Edinburgh in the Thirties
11- page typed copy of 'Edinburgh in the Thirties'
1- reprint, forwarded from his widow by H. Beloff entitled 'Changing Horizons: An Essay in Autobiography' by Boris Semeonoff, 1969 [signed by B.Semeonoff].
An audio recording of an interview with Boris Semeonoff (1910-1998), by Tommy MacKay is available ref AUD/001/43.
The audio interview was recorded just before Boris Semeonoff's 88th birthday in 1998. It was his last interview.
The papers of Boris Semeonoff are held at Edinburgh University Library: Reference Number(s) GB 237 Coll-225 |
| AdminHistory | Dr.Boris Semeonoff 1910-1998
Education: George Watson's School and University of Edinburgh where he studied English Language and Literature.
Boris Semeonoff joined the staff of the Department of Psychology [Edinburgh University] in 1933 under its Chairman, Professor James Drever (primus). His career was interrupted when war broke out and he went to work for the War Office Selection Board where he was involved in selecting spies to infiltrate occupied Europe. He returned to the Department of Psychology for the academic year 1946/47 where James Drever (secundus) was now in command.
Later, when in 1966 Drever left to become Principal of Dundee University, Boris became acting head of the Department until David Vowles was appointed in 1968.
Boris Semeonoff is best known as an authority on the use of projective techniques on personality testing such as the Rorschach (or 'ink-blot') test and the Thematic Apperception Test (T.A.T.). His most notable publications were Diagnostic Performance Tests (1958); Personality Assessment:Selected Readings (Penguin 1966/70) and Projective Techniques (1976). He also contributed the article on projective techniques to Richard Gregory's The Oxford Companion to Mind (1987).
Boris Semeonoff was a well known figure in the British Psychological Society of which he became President for the year 1968/69. His Presidential Address Changing Horizons: An Essay in Autobiography appears in the Bulletin of the B.P.S. for July 1969.
He was for many years editor of the British Journal of Psychology and served as president of the Psychology Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Besides Psychology, Boris was well known in musical circles as an opera enthusiast with a unique collection of gramophone records. In 1951 he published his Record Collecting: A Guide for Beginners. |
| Copyright | Subject to the condition of the original, copies may be supplied for private research use only on receipt of a signed undertaking to comply with current copyright legislation. Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Head of the History of Psychology Centre and Archives and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. Where possible, assistance will be given in identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material |