Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

TOGETHER AGAIN ROBERT EPSTEIN* In 1994 we published an article by Robert Lanza entitled "Humpty Dumpty. " The following essay by Robert Epstein will serve to clarify certain statements made in the original article. When a colleague urged me to read Robert Lanza's recent article, "Humpty Dumpty" [1], I was apprehensive. Between 1979 and 1981, while a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, Lanza worked for several months under my direction in a laboratory I had established at Harvard with behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner, then in his 70s and technically retired. My contact with Dr. Lanza had been professional and mostly cordial . Now, so many years later, I find myself (identified under the pseudonym "James") on the pages of an academic journal, depicted as a Mother Goose character who says provocative things I never said. What's soinsr on? The Cambridge Centerfor Behavioral Studies Lanza states that I "was resolved to set up an institute on B.F. Skinner's behalf. . . . But everything soon vanished in a cloud ofdust' ' [1 ] . The reader may be left with the impression that this project failed or was never begun. In fact, the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies was incorporated in December of 1981. At its first annual meeting, the board of trustees—most of them close, long-time associates of Skinner's—unanimously passed a resolution founding the Center in Skinner's honor. Skinner himselfvisited the Center a number of times, and he drew a large crowd in 1989 when * Center for Behavioral Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182. E-mail epstein@juno.com© 1998 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0031-5982/98/4102-1046$01.00 Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 41, 2 ¦ Winter 1998 | 299 he attended the unveiling of a bust that the Center had commissioned in his honor. At the time I retired as Director Emeritus in 1990, the Center published two journals (Behavior and Philosophy and Behavior and Social Issues), ran programs for interns and fellows, conducted public policy workshops on AIDS and traffic safety, had a continuing education program for therapists, and housed four historical collections in its library, including an "aircrib" and many ofSkinner's original teaching machines. Over 100 distinguished scientists served on Center boards, including two Nobel laureates in medicine . The Center, now on its fourth director, is still flourishing, fulfilling its mission to "advance the study of behavior and its humane applications in society." Harvard Lanza states that, as a result of an argument with a faculty member, I was "asked to leave Harvard" [1], which may suggest that I did not complete my graduate work there. While it's true that I had an altercation with the individual Lanza labels "Professor H," I was not asked to leave Harvard as a result. Professor H and I had many heated discussions over the years, almost always because of my unquestioning and, at times, undiplomatic defense of B. F. Skinner. Although this created difficulties for me during my graduate student years, my doctorate was in fact awarded by Harvard in 1981. Professor H and I differed on many issues, but Skinner was our main problem. Professor H had done some of his graduate work with Skinner in the 1950s. They had had many disagreements over the years, and one was in full swing when I arrived at Harvard in 1977. Professor H had just published an article that was critical of Skinner's views, and Skinner had had me put some finishing touches on his reply. My relationship with Professor H was doomed from the moment I met him. Skinner introduced me as "my right arm" and "a young man who knows more about me than I do." Professor H grimaced—for reasons that took me a long time to understand. Lanza suggests that after one altercation with Professor H, I courted another university (unnamed) and told people there, for some unspecified reason, that "B. F. Skinner . . . hadjust been thrown out of Harvard" [I]. I don't know what to make of this, but perhaps it relates to the following: At one point, Skinner and I formally asked the chairman of...