SOURCE: Weiss, Allen S. “Stein's Stein: a tale from The Aphoristic Theatre.” The Drama Review (19 September 1996): 23-24.

In the following essay, Weiss recounts incidents from Stein's life as a Radcliffe sophomore studying under noted American psychologist William James.

Gertrude Stein was already one of William James' favorite students by the time she enrolled in Hugo Münsterberg's laboratory experimentation course during her sophomore year at Radcliffe in 1894. James, having just published his monumental The Principles of Psychology, was at that moment particularly interested in the relations between conscious and unconscious states of mind. Among his oblique and eccentric entries into the domain was a study of the spiritualist practice of trance—induced automatic writing, much to the dismay of his more rationalist colleagues. In this light, he initiated a series of psychological experiments in which the subject was tested according to varying degrees of fatigue and distraction. One...