Donald K. Freedheim, Case Western Reserve University professor emeritus of psychology, had the daunting task over the past four years of chronicling the evolution of psychology from its early roots in philosophy and physiology to its modern-day science and profession.

The history of psychology is more than 4,000 years old.

Freedheim served as editor of the first volume of the 12-book set of the Handbook of Psychology (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).

While the massive volumes will find their ways onto the shelves of libraries and departments of psychology, individual volumes will serve as textbooks. Freedheim said that graduate students must learn the history of their profession and thinks his volume will become a book used by many professors in teaching the discipline's history.

The Handbook on Psychology is the "most comprehensive set of volumes done on psychology," according to Freedheim.

In the volume, "History of Psychology," Freedheim mustered the expertise of 60 contributors to pen articles for the 26 chapters that covered such topics as psychology as a science and profession; its subdivisions of child, clinical, industrial, social, educational and personality; the development of international meetings; the formation of scholarly journals; and the establishment of professional organizations. He also looked at how ethnic groups impacted psychology and how they were or were not served by the profession.

"Psychology grew from a science into a profession when the public demanded to use the results from the laboratory to meet social problems such as determining who could serve as a solider during World War I or placing children in grades in school," Freedheim said.

His contributions were not the only ones by a psychologist with ties to CWRU.

The Handbook's Editor-In-Chief Irving B. Weiner chaired CWRU's psychology department from 1972-1977 and went on to become dean of graduate studies from 1976-1979. He currently is the clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine at the University of South Florida.

Other contributors to the Handbook include Roy Baumeister, the former Elsie B. Smith Professor of Liberal Arts until December 2002. Now at Florida State University, Baumeister wrote a chapter on social psychology, and George Albee, a former psychology professor at CWRU, wrote about ethnic groups and confrontations with the American Psychological Association in the 1970s.

Weiner invited Freedheim to edit the first volume because of his familiarity with the history of the profession. In 1992, Freedheim published the book, The History of Psychotherapy with the American Psychological Association.