Model Of Communcation
Harold Dwight Lasswell (February 13, 1902 — December 18,
1978)
Harold D. Lasswell (1902-1978) is known for his studies
in the field of Politics. He is considered a pioneer in the application of
Psychology principles to Politics, as well as in constructing a system of
Politics based on theories of Natural Sciences.
Harold Dwight Lasswell was born in Donnellson, Illinois,
on February 13, 1902. His father was a Presbyterian clergyman and his mother
was a schoolteacher.
Due to his successes in school, Lasswell obtained a
grant for studying sociology at the University of Chicago, where he graduated
in 1922. In 1926, with only 24 years old, he received the title of doctor from
the same institution. His dissertation on “Propaganda Technique in the
World War” (1927) is considered a leading study on Communication Theories.
During this period of his life, Lasswell was influenced by the pragmatism
taught by John Dewey and George Herbert Mead, among others.
But he also studied at the universities of London,
Geneva, Paris and Berlin – where he studied Sigmund Freud, whose theories were
determinant for Lasswell’s psychological approach to Political Science.
The University of Chicago made Lasswell an
assistant professor in 1927 and an associate one in 1932. He stayed there until
1938, when he transferred to the Washington School of Psychiatry. But the
Second World War started and Lasswell became the director of War Communications
Research at the Library of Congress. He also worked as a professor at the New
School of Social Research in New York City and at Yale Law School.
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