ABSTRACT
Henry Alexander Murray was born in New York in 1893. The America that the infant Harry grew up in was one of sharp contradictions. His life was comfortable and secure. Harry was the middle child; he had an older sister and younger brother. Harry’s mother was nervous, self-absorbed, she suffered from hypochondria and was prone to meddling. The trauma of the surgery not only resulted in Harry developing a stutter, but the surgeons overcorrected his eyes causing Harry to suffer from a complete lack of stereoscopic vision. In 1923 Harry met Christiana Morgan which would change both the nature of his personal life and the trajectory of his professional career. Harry began to create techniques for use in the clinic that would enable the mind to wander and provide the psychologist with an additional route by which to understand the patient. Harry’s major work on psychogenic need theory helped to stimulate attention.
