Historians simplify history, and historians of psychology succumb to this inevitable necessity. They all repeat that the era of behaviorism began with J. B. Watson's article in the Psychological Review of 1913. There were some precedents to this revolution they admit, but they are preferably sought for in America, and in particular, at the University of Chicago where J. B. Watson began his work.
All these statements are just, but they only account for partial truths and are marked by a provincial character. Let us remember that up until the years of 1925-1930, scientific psychology was very dependent upon the local conditions in which it was developed in the different countries. There was, in this sense, a German psychology and an American psychology, even if the influences of the first upon the second were great at the end of the 19th century. There was also a Russian psychology which for a long time remained apart from the West due to language barriers, geographic distances, and later, to political obstacles. This psychology, more than any other, should be given thc credit for establishing the study of behavior as the main source of influence on psychology. Around 1863, in his work "Reflexes of the Brain," I. Al. Sechenov traced the theoretical framework which Pavlov, 40 years later, experimentally confirmed. The life of the organism, said Sechenov, can only be understood through its interactions with the environment. And voluntary acts, like involuntary acts, always have their origin in sensory stimulation. I n involuntary acts, action follows stimulation. In voluntary acts there intervenes the intermediary of thought but is not as a superadded force. "The initial cause of all behavior always lies, not in thought, but in external sensory stimulation without which no thought is possible."' Pavlov would, to some degree, prove this hypothesis and show that the kind of subjective reasoning of the type t,he dog experienced ("the dog desires") had no justification since the primary stimulation can be proved, and that which one believed, could only be explained aside from subjectivity. Sechenov and Ynvlov understood considerably prior to Watson that psychology was the science of the relations between stimulations and reactions. Watson, himself, was only able to develop his own concepts when he became acquainted with the works of l'avlov after 1913.
This defense of the Russian school of thought as an antecedent to the American school introduces the fact that thc psychology of behavior had diverse and multiple origins. In fact, the Russian sources are beginning to be taken into consideration. But I would now like to show that the psychology of behavior also had French origins which, and barely evident in France itself, are ignored outside of France. Scientific psychology had a difficult time developing in France. E. G. Boring traces hack the prehistory of the psychology of behavior to the sensualists of the 18th century, and in particular, to Condillnc, LaMettrie, and Cabanis. Condillac %echenov, I. M., Reflexes of the brain, Extracts published by It. J. Herrnstein and E. G. Boriiig, A 801irce book in the historjl of psychology, CBmbridge, Harvard Universit,y Press, 1965.