
Beate Marianne E Hermelin, (''née'' Fliess; 7 August 1919 – 14 January 2007), affectionately known as Ati, was a German-born
experimental psychologist
Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, in ...
, who worked in the UK and was a pioneer in the experimental study of
autism
The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...
. Her numerous scientific publications span five decades.
Early life
Hermelin was born into a well-to-do Jewish family in
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
. Her father, who served as an officer in the First World War, was a lawyer. He was related to
Wilhelm Fliess
Wilhelm Fliess (german: Wilhelm Fließ; 24 October 1858 – 13 October 1928) was a German otolaryngologist who practised in Berlin. He developed the pseudoscientific theory of human biorhythms and a possible nasogenital connection that have ...
, a controversial otolaryngologist whose pseudoscientific theories influenced
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
. Her mother Hilde was a High School teacher, born in
Breslau. Beate's sister
:de:Dorothee Fliess was the only member of the family who stayed in Berlin during the Second World War.
In 1939, Beate fled adventurously with a boyfriend to Jerusalem. Her parents were helped by friends to escape to Switzerland and returned to Berlin after the war. In Jerusalem, Beate went to art school and trained as a gold- and silversmith and moved in artistic circles. She married film maker Rolf Hermelin (8 May 1917 – 1989). In 1948, they came to London where they found a congenial bohemian circle of friends. They built a tiny
bungalow
A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single- story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas.
The first house in England that was classified as ...
in an idyllic setting near
Cobham, Surrey
Cobham () is a large village in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, centred south-west of London and northeast of Guildford on the River Mole. It has a commercial/services High Street, a significant number of primary and private ...
and lived there in great contentment. Beate and Rolf regularly took an annual holiday in
Zermatt
Zermatt () is a municipality in the district of Visp in the German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is classified as a town by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO ...
, and travelled frequently to their favourite towns in Europe.
Career
Beate was proud of her unconventional education. She enjoyed German classic literature and considered herself first of all a
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
n. Her schooling was interrupted in her teenage years, and when she was in London, she attended evening classes in Psychology where she was talent spotted by Alan Clark, who later became chair of the Psychology Department in Hull. Alan Clark and his wife Ann were deeply impressed by Beate's intelligence and encouraged Beate to study Psychology and by using considerable diplomatic skills she gained a place at
Reading University
The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...
. After gaining her degree Alan Clark suggested that she do a PhD at the
Institute of Psychiatry
The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a research institution dedicated to discovering what causes mental illness and diseases of the brain. In addition, its aim is to help identify new treatments for them and ways ...
(now part of
King's College London), in the experimental psychology of mental deficiency. Her supervisor was
Neil O'Connor
Neil O'Connor (March 23, 1917 – October 1, 1997) was an experimental psychologist, born in Geraldton, Western Australia. He died in 1997 after a traffic incident.
Education
He studied Philosophy and Experimental Psychology in Oxford and serve ...
, an experimental psychologist who had just completed a groundbreaking study conducted in the field. From this point onwards, a lifelong scientific collaboration had been forged, and Hermelin joined O'Connor on the staff of the
Medical Research Council. Almost all publications by these scientists were authored jointly, with strict rotation of the order of names.
Beate Hermelin was a member of the MRC's Scientific Staff from the 1960s until her retirement in the mid-1980s. She never retired but continued to work on projects concerning savant abilities. Even in later life, as Honorary Professor at Goldsmiths College, London, she continued to interact with students University. Some students and close colleagues of Beate Hermelin include Peter Bryant,
Uta Frith
Dame Uta Frith (''née'' Aurnhammer; born 25 May 1941) is a German-British developmental psychologist at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. She has pioneered much of the current research into autism and dysl ...
, Peter Hobson, Feriha Anwar, Barbara Dodd, Pam Heaton and Linda Pring.
Research
Beate Hermelin was a gifted experimentalist who was inspired by paradigms from general
experimental psychology
Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, in ...
to apply them to unusual and difficult populations, that is, learning disabled children, who at that time lived in long stay hospitals and were thought to be ineducable. Jointly with Neil O'Connor she started an important series of experiments to elucidate childhood autism Another of their research projects concerned comparisons of abstract cognitive abilities of individuals with specific sensory impairments, such as lack of vision or hearing. In later years, after retirement, Beate Hermelin summarized her research on
savant syndrome
Savant syndrome () is a rare condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average. The skills that savants excel at are generally related to memory. This may include rapid calc ...
, written in a semi-biographical fashion.
In all these fields of knowledge Beate Hermelin made major contributions that propelled the field of developmental psychology into the field now known as
developmental cognitive neuroscience
Developmental cognitive neuroscience is an interdisciplinary scientific field devoted to understanding psychological processes and their neurological bases in the developing organism. It examines how the mind changes as children grow up, interrelat ...
.
External links
The Times obituary
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hermelin, Beate
British psychologists
1919 births
2007 deaths
People from Berlin
People from Cobham, Surrey
Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) people
Alumni of the University of Reading
Alumni of King's College London
20th-century psychologists
German emigrants to the United Kingdom