L'Annee Psychologique: comparative history of its foundation.

This paper provides a detailed account of the origins of the french centena rian journal L'Annee Psychologique. This journal is presented in the contex t of the time. The history of the founding of several german (Wundt's Philo sophische Studien.; Ebbinghaus and Konig's Zeitschrift fur Psychologie) and american journals (Hall's American Journal of Psychology; Baldwin and Catt ell's Psychological Review) are first exposed. Then, the specific problems associated with the creation of a psychological journal in France are prese nted. Indeed, the origin of "Annee Psychologique " is inseparable from the institutional and intellectual context of the time in France. The names of Theodule Ribot (1839-1916), Henry Beaunis (1830-1921) and Alfred Binet (185 7-1911) are closely associated to the journal. Beaunis, member of the schoo l of Nancy, proposed to Ribot the creation of the first French laboratory o f experimental psychology (1889). Under Beaunis' direction, this laboratory was established at the Sorbonne in Paris but was in fact dependent on. ano ther structure, L'Ecole pratique des hautes etudes (EPHE). In. 1893, the wo rks of the laboratory were first published in a yearly review entitled Trav aux du Laboratoire de psychologie physiologique (2 vol. : 1893-1894). Alfre d Binet (1857-1911), who joined the laboratory in 1891, was not satisfied b y the form of this publication. With Beaunis' agreement, Binet created L'An nee Psychologique in 1894 in order to develop the laboratory's reputation f or research. This new yearly review was first published in 1895 and contain ed original papers, general reviews and book reports. We present the evolut ion and vicissitudes of the journal from 1895 to 1912 noting the editors wh o followed (Pieron, Fraisse, Noizet, Segui), who have also been directors o f the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology in Paris.