September 26, 1997

What's in a name?

Psychology professor Douglas Wahlsten with a portrait of Dr. John MacEachran.

They've taken the name plate off the door. The second-floor Biological Sciences Room-a comfortable room used for committee meetings, PhD orals and thesis defences-will no longer be known as the MacEachran Room. At its 69th council meeting earlier this month, the psychology department decided to rename its MacEachran Lecture Series as well and struck a committee to come up with recommendations for new names.

John M. MacEachran, for whom the room and lectures series were named, would not likely be pleased. MacEachran was, after all, a leading figure in the early history of the University of Alberta. In 1909, the well-educated young man arrived in Edmonton to help build a university. He had earned his MA in philosophy from Queen's University, went on to study in Leipzig with one of the pioneering figures of the day in experimental psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, and then conducted postdoctoral studies at the Sorbonnne in Paris. His credentials were impeccable.

Last year, however, in an Edmonton courtroom a part of MacEachran's life came under intense scrutiny. Madam Justice Joanne Veit ruled that the provincial government had wrongly sterilized Leilani Muir, a woman wrongfully committed to the province's Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives.

The order to sterilize Muir was signed by MacEachran, founder of the Department of Philosophy and Psychology-and, it turns out, the chairman of the Eugenics Board from 1929 to 1965.

Muir was awarded damages and legal costs. The justice wrote:

"The damage inflicted by the operation were catastrophic.the circumstances of Ms. Muir's sterilization were so high-handed and so contemptuous of the statutory authority to effect sterilization, and were undertaken in an atmosphere that so little respected Ms. Muir's human dignity that the community's, and the court's, sense of decency is offended."

Psychology professor Dr. Douglas Wahlsten says MacEachran was inspired by a Platonic idealism that recognized a pure and perfect type of human. He may also have been influenced by the racial purity theories of Ernst Haeckel.

In a 1932 address to the United Farm Women's Association of Alberta, MacEachran said, "We allow men and women of defective intelligence or of criminal tendencies to have children.. There is one remedy for such eventualities and fortunately we have begun to make use of it in Alberta-although not yet nearly extensively enough. This is the Alberta Sterilization Act." (see sidebar)

MacEachran was not alone in holding those views. In 1934, U of A President R.C. Wallace addressed the Canadian Medical Association annual banquet in Calgary on "the quality of the human stock." He said, "Science had done very much to raise the quality of the stock in the domesticated animals which man has reared for his services; it has done virtually nothing to raise the quality of the human stock." Emily Murphy, Tommy Douglas, Winston Churchill and others espoused similar views at times.

Wahlsten, who sponsored the motions at the department council, says, "It's important to confront our past and make our opinions public. It's clear that MacEachran taught a lot of students some very bad ideas, and it's clear he used his University position to propagate his ideas about eugenics. We have to make a clear stand," he says, pointing out that even today there are people in favor of reinstating eugenics policies.

When MacEachran retired in 1945, the tributes poured in for the Department of Philosophy and Psychology's first head and later University Provost. The University's Alumni magazine commented on MacEachran's "spirit of open-mindedness, liberalism and tolerance" and how his home was "a centre of gracious hospitality and unfailing kindness."

A few years later, after he died in 1971 at the age of 94, the Department of Psychology established a lecture series in his name. MacEachran left his possessions-furniture, artwork and papers-to the beloved academic home where he had spent his entire academic career.

He also left two different endowments. The first funds the two MacEachran Medals, one in psychology and the other in philosophy. The second endowment funds $6,000 annually for scholarships in psychology, philosophy and education.

Acting chair of the philosophy department, Bernard Linsky, says he plans to raise the issue of MacEachran's legacy with department members at its next council meeting.

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