Adrian Brock‘s new piece in the February 2016 edition of the Monitor on Psychology looks at the differing professional experiences of Karl and Charlotte Bühler. He emphasizes how comparison of their respective careers provide examples of the ways that disciplinary reception of theory and research is context bound.
An excerpt from the article:
It is widely accepted that immigrants have to adapt to a new culture in their personal lives. What is often overlooked is that émigré psychologists had to adapt to a new culture in their professional lives as well. The differing success of Karl and Charlotte Bühler in the United States shows that some were more able to adapt to this new professional culture than others.
These local differences continue to exist. It might seem surprising that someone can be regarded as a major figure in the history of psychology on one side of the Atlantic and virtually unknown on the other, but this situation is not at all unusual. The only thing that makes Karl Bühler stand out from the others is that he spent the last 23 years of his life in one of the countries where he is virtually unknown.