Gregory H. Razran (4 June 1901, in

Slutsk Slutsk is a town in Minsk Region, in central Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Slutsk District, and is located on the Sluch (Belarus), Sluch River south of the capital Minsk. As of 2025, it has a population of 59,450. Geography ...

– 31 August 1973, in St Petersburg, Florida) was a

Russian American Russian Americans are Americans of full or partial Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to those that settled in the 19th-century Russian possessions in what is now Alaska. Russi ...

expert on Russian psychological research. He left Russia in 1920 and studied at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

gaining a doctorate in 1933. He moved to

Queens College, City University of New York Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...

in 1940 where he became a professor and headed the Psychology department there from 1945 to 1966. He received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 1948. Razran regarded the work of

Ivan Pavlov Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (, ; 27 February 1936) was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs. Pavlov also conducted significant research on ...

as a "

Trojan horse In Greek mythology, the Trojan Horse () was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer, Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending ...

" in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, incompatible with Marxism-Leninism. In 1950, he published a short piece about the Soviet

behaviourist Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understand the behavior of humans and other animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex elicited by the pairing of certain antecedent (behavioral psychology), antecedent stimuli in the environmen ...

, Emmanuil Enchmen, a loyal Stalinist whose scientific views had been proscribed since 1923. In 1964 Razran was prominently featured in an article on

Dermo-optical perception Dermo-optical perception (DOP, also known as dermal vision, dermo-optics, skin vision, skin reading, finger vision, cutaneous perception, digital sight, and bio-introscopy) is a term that is used in parapsychological literature to denote the alle ...

, a discredited phenomenon which has not been demonstrated scientifically. This reviewed the research of Abram S. Novomeysky into the abilities of Rosa Kuleshova. Razran declared that "there is no longer any doubt in his mind that this work was valid." In fact Razran was quite excited about the research: "In all my years, I can't remember when anything has had me more excited than this prospect of opening up new doors of perception." Complaining that he was too excited to sleep at night, he opined that this was a "major scientific breakthrough" which would lead to an "explosive outburst of research" whose results were "bound to be revolutionary". Razran was keen to return to

, where he was a professor and planned to carry out further research in this area himself. He moved to St Petersburg, Florida where he was professor at

Eckerd College Eckerd College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. Founded in 1958, part of the campus is waterfront (area), waterfront and beach on Boca Ciega ...

. He drowned while swimming at the age of 72.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Razran, Gregory 1901 births 1973 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States 20th-century American psychologists Deaths by drowning in Florida Eckerd College faculty