Marianne Leonore Simmel (3 January 1923 – 24 March 2010) was a German-American psychologist with a special interest in

cognitive neuropsychology Cognitive neuropsychology is a branch of cognitive psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relates to specific psychological processes. Cognitive psychology is the science that looks at how mental process ...

. The granddaughter of famed sociologist and philosopher

Georg Simmel Georg Simmel (; ; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic. Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach l ...

, she was born into an assimilated Jewish family in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

, Germany, to doctors Hans Eugen Simmel, a professor, and his wife, Else Rose, a pediatrician. She had younger siblings Eva Barbara, Arnold Georg and Gerhard Friedrich. She immigrated to the United States in March 1940 with her family as a stateless refugee and applied for citizenship later that year. The family was initially divided across New York City; the parents stayed at a lodging house while their children lived at various friends' homes. At age 17, with only an eighth-grade education, she initially lived in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, working as a housekeeper for another Jewish family. Nine years later, she received her Ph.D. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and later served on the faculty at the College of Medicine at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois ...

and at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pr ...

. With

Fritz Heider Fritz Heider (19 February 1896 – 2 January 1988) was an Austrian psychologist whose work was related to the Gestalt school. In 1958 he published ''The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations'', which expanded upon his creations of balance theory ...

, Simmel co-authored "An Experimental Study of Apparent Behavior," which explored the experience of animacy. The study showed that subjects presented with a certain display of inanimate two-dimensional figures are inclined to ascribe intentions to those figures. This result has been taken to establish "the human instinct for storytelling" and to serve as important data in the study of

theory of mind In psychology, theory of mind refers to the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them (that is, surmising what is happening in their mind). This includes the knowledge that others' mental states may be different from ...

. In addition to her early work with Heider, Simmel went on to make important contributions in cognitive neuropsychology, for instance in her work on the phenomenon of the

phantom limb A phantom limb is the sensation that an amputated or missing limb is still attached. Approximately 80 to 100% of individuals with an amputation experience sensations in their amputated limb. However, only a small percentage will experience painf ...

. She died in

North Eastham, Massachusetts North Eastham is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Eastham in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,806 at the 2010 census. The main visitor center of the Cape Cod National Seashore is located in North ...

.''U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014''

References

1923 births 2010 deaths Scientists from Jena 20th-century American Jews German emigrants to the United States American people of German-Jewish descent German women psychologists American women psychologists American psychologists Neuropsychologists Social psychologists 20th-century American women scientists Smith College alumni Harvard University alumni Brandeis University faculty University of Illinois Chicago faculty 21st-century American Jews German psychologists {{Psychologist-stub