Herbert Blumer
The death of Herbert Blumer (Times, April 18) marks the passing of the last of the great sociologists of the “Chicago School,” which dominated the field in the early part of the 20th Century.
Blumer, a student of George Herbert Mead, developed Mead’s concept of the self--as learned through taking roles of others--into a methodological approach for the study and understanding of human behavior.
“Symbolic interaction” was the phrase Blumer coined to describe how human responses are not made directly to the actions of another, but are based instead on the meaning which is attached to such actions, a far cry from the stimulus-response theories of psychology.
Symbolic interaction theory underlies participant-observation, now widely used by educators, therapists, and other helping professionals for understanding and changing human behavior. My own career as a teacher and clinical sociologist was greatly influenced by the work of Blumer, his colleagues and students.
JOHN GLASS
Studio City
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