Chapter 10 — Membership in Cabinets, actions taken and different happenings

Ali Akbar Dehkhoda (President of President of the School of Political Science) , after attentively listening to my explanations giving psychology a scientific identity and an independent science, thanked me for informing him about this important matter and said until that day Psychology, in this way, didn’t exist in Iran then asked me if he included this field of study in the school where he was its President if I would teach that class. After a little thought I said: “I am ready and willing, even though it will be difficult.” In that meeting we came up with the Farsi equivalent for Psychology (روان شناسی) and a short while later I began teaching the subject. Several years later I started teaching psychology in the Teacher Training College and the School of Literature and Humanities of the Tehran University. The students welcomed this subject with enthusiasm and their class notes circulated throughout the University and outside. I decided to edit my notes and to publish them in a book. This groundbreaking work became the first book of Psychology in Iran for students called “Educational Psychology.” published in 1317 Solar year (1938).

Professor Dr. Siassi by establishing Psychology at the University of Tehran, teaching Psychology, creating the first Psychology laboratory and publishing the first comprehensive book on Psychology in 1317 (1938), in actuality is the “Father of Modern Psychology in Iran” like Germany’s Wundt or France’s Theodule-Armand Ribot and America’s William James is responsible for spreading scientific psychology in Iran and by now thousands of students have become educated by reading his books…” (cited from a detailed article by Dr. Khansari, in the School of Literature and Humanities magazine # 93-94 pages 69-75 1355 Solar year(1976)

Another distinguished Professor, Dr. Bastani Parizi, in the same magazine (pages 92-96) wrote: This appreciation is due to the person to whom three generations of contemporary teachers owe a debt of gratitude. Every one of them – was a student of Dr. Siassi’, We are his students and our children, and their children will be the beneficiaries of his teachings. If it were possible to survey all the people who have graduated from Daral-Funoon 50 years ago and from Tehran University till today to recognize the greatest and best Teacher, rightfully Dr. Siassi is at the top of that list. His greatness is not just because of teaching for over 50 years, or because his lessons were directly related to Teacher Training. His subject made familiar new teaching methods combined with old tradition which transformed the teaching approach to formally educating the best scientists and scholars in the country, but because he also gathered the best and most qualified scholars and scientists into the Tehran University to create that great institution…

Another venerable colleague of mine Iradj Afshar, who recently discovered a pamphlet by Mohammad Ibn Hasan ibn Mohammad Ibn Mubarak Shah Abarghoee and has published, in the book’s introduction he wrote: “This textbook…is my offering to Dr. Ali Akbar Siassi, the man who in 1304(1925) published an article called “The Collective Sense” based on modern psychology in Ayandeh Magazine, and from that day until now has made valiant efforts in expanding this field and his relentless efforts in the search for excellence in Tehran University which will always remember its first President.”