Mauro Antonelli 
Vittorio Benussi in the History of Psychology 
New Ideas of a Century Ago

This book covers the basic guidelines of Vittorio Benussi’s research during the period at Graz and at Padua. It does so in the light of a thorough study of his Nachlass. The book re-evaluates Benussi’s work as a historical piece, and shows how his work is still relevant today, especially in the areas of cognitive psychology and cognitive science. The volume deals with this original and ingenious – though largely ignored – scholar and discusses his work as a leading experimental psychologist. Benussi’s contributions as discussed in this book were particularly relevant in the fields of visual and tactile perception, time perception, forensic psychology, hypnosis and suggestion, unconscious, and emotions. His classical papers are impressive in their originality, energy, range of approaches, experimental skill, the wealth of findings, and the quality of theoretical discussions. This book demonstrates that Benussi was ahead of his time and that his themes, experiments and research programmes are highly relevant to contemporary cognitive psychology.

Table of Content

Chapter 1. The Austrian way to Gestalt psychology: From Brentano to Benussi via Meinong.- Chapter 2. Vittorio Benussi: A difficult life with a tragic fate.- Chapter 3. Benussi and the Graz School.- Chapter 4. The late work in Padua.- Chapter 5. Conclusions.

About the author

Mauro Antonelli is professor of History and Epistemology of Psychology at the University of Milano – Bicocca, Italy, and Privatdozent of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy and at the Alexius Meinong Institute of the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz, Austria. His main research interests include the history of German and Austrian philosophy and psychology in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Brentano and the Brentano School, phenomenological psychology, the philosophy and psychology of time.