William Moulton Marston's Legacy
William Moulton Marston's life story is an interesting one—filled with
accomplishments which at first seem totally unrelated. He was a lawyer, a
psychologist, invented the first functional lie detector polygraph, created the
DISC model for emotions and behavior of normal people, authored of self-help
books, and created the Wonder Woman comic.
The basic facts
 Born: May 9, 1893 in Cliftondale, MA
Died: May 2, 1947 in Rye, NY, from cancer
Wife: Elizabeth Holloway (m. 1915, 2 children)
Polyamorous partner: Olive Byrne (former student, 2
children)
Education: BA from Harvard University (1915), LLB from Harvard Law School
(1918), PhD in psychology from Harvard University (1921), Teacher: American
University
Comic Book Hall of Fame induction: 2006
The lie detector - Marston's earliest professional years
Having discovered a correspondence between blood pressure and lying, he built a
device to measure changes in a person's blood pressure while the subject was
being questioned. Marston formally published his early polygraph findings in
1917 on the lie detection invention he first constructed in 1915.
During the 1920s and 30s Marston was an active lecturer and consulted with
government groups. Unlike many psychologists of the time, he was more interested
in the behavior of the general population of people rather than abnormal
psychology.
He gained the attention of the federal government for his research. He also
sought the attention of the courts and the public by publishing widely and
seeking publicity. Following the Lindbergh kidnapping in the 1930s, Marston
offered his services to the Lindbergh family.
Psychology, emotions, and behavior – Marston's DISC model
 In the early 20s Marston's work continued to be significant in the courts and
legal system; however, it evolved in 1924 when he first studied the concepts of
will and a person's sense of power, and their effect on personality and human
behavior. His work in consciousness, colors, primary emotions, and bodily
symptoms also contributed greatly to the field of psychology. The picture to the
right shows Marston researching Emotions of Normal People, the 1928 book which
formally presenting his findings. He published a second book on DISC,
Integrative Psychology, in 1931.
DISC came, by design, from Marston’s search for measurements of the energy of
behavior and consciousness. Marston did not develop an assessment or test from
his model, although others did. He did, however, apply his model and theory in
the real world when he consulted with Universal Studios in 1930 to help them
transition from melodramatic silent pictures to movies with audio.
Links:
History of DiSC
Profiles
Emotions of Normal People, Google books
Writing for the public - Entertainment and self-help books
Venus With Us: A Tale of the Caesar, a historical novel was published
in 1932. It was republished in 1953 as The Private Life of Julius Caesar,
after Marston's death, to capitalize on the release of a film by Universal with
the same name. Three other books followed on topics of popularity, courage,
attitudes, and determination. They were mass marketed to the public in the
emerging self-help industry. Nearly a century later, Marston's finest work
remains in either the entertainment, judicial, or self-help training industry.
Ever a devotee of entertainment, he even wrote a biography, F.F. Proctor,
Vaudeville Pioneer, in 1943 in the midst of his greatest contribution to
entertainment, Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman - William Moulton Marston as Charles Moulton
 Marston
was schooled in the Greek and Roman classics as a young man. He was also
intimately and personally involved with earliest movements for women's rights,
including issues of birth control, voting, and career equity. Knowing that, it
is no surprise that William Moulton Marston's most famous work is the creation
of the comic book heroine, Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman emerges on the scene in December 1941 in issue #8 of All Star
Comics. She is created and brilliantly presented with Greek and Roman goddess
archetypes; she uses a lasso for truth; and her heroic behaviors have will,
power, and the use of the behavioral style dimensions of DISC, dominance,
influence, submission, and compliance, to accomplish her missions.
It would seem that neither Max Gaines of DC Comics nor William Moulton
Marston were absolutely certain how a female heroine would be accepted. Max
Gaines introduced the heroine in the back of a comic at first and William
Moulton Marston used a pen name and wrote as Charles Moulton. They need not have
worried. Wonder Woman soon earned her own comic and was a big success. Marston
wrote Wonder Woman until his death in 1947 and was inducted into the Will Eisner
Award Hall of Fame in 2006.
Links:
Bound to Blog: Wonder Woman #22, tcj.com
"Our Women
Are Our Future," a 1942 interview with Marston published in Family Circle
Quotes by William Moulton Marston
Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks
force, strength, and power, Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be
tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities
have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to
create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the
allure of a good and beautiful woman.
Every crisis offers you extra desired power.
Besides the practical knowledge which defeat offers, there are important
personality profits to be taken.
Most of us actually stifle enough good impulses during the course of a
day to change the current of our lives.
It's too bad for us 'literary' enthusiasts, but it's the truth
nevertheless - pictures tell any story more effectively than words.
Realize what you really want. It stops you from chasing butterflies and
puts you to work digging gold.
William Moulton Marston's bibliography
Doctoral dissertation
"Systolic blood pressure symptoms of deception and constituent mental
states." (Harvard University, 1921)
Books
(1999; originally published 1928) Emotions of Normal People. Taylor &
Francis Ltd. ISBN 0-415-21076-3
(1930) Walter B. Pitkin & William M. Marston, The Art of Sound Pictures.
New York: Appleton.
(1931) Integrative Psychology: A Study of Unit Response (with C. Daly
King, and Elizabeth Holloway Marston).
(c. 1932) Venus with us; a tale of the Caesar. New York: Sears.
(1936) You can be popular. New York: Home Institute.
(1937) Try living. New York: Crowell.
(1938) The lie detector test. New York: Smith.
(1941) March on! Facing life with courage. New York: Doubleday, Doran.
(1943) F.F. Proctor, vaudeville pioneer (with J.H. Feller). New York:
Smith.
Journal articles
(1917) "Systolic blood pressure symptoms of deception." Journal of
Experimental Psychology, Vol 2(2), 117–163.
(1920) "Reaction time symptoms of deception." Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 3, 72–87.
(1921) "Psychological Possibilities in the Deception Tests." Journal of
Criminal Law & Criminology, 11, 551–570.
(1923) "Sex Characteristics of Systolic Blood Pressure Behavior." Journal
of Experimental Psychology, 6, 387–419.
(1924) "Studies in Testimony." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology,
15, 5–31.
(1924) "A Theory of Emotions and Affection Based Upon Systolic Blood Pressure
Studies." American Journal of Psychology, 35, 469–506.
(1925) "Negative type reaction-time symptoms of deception." Psychological
Review, 32, 241–247.
(1926) "The psychonic theory of consciousness." Journal of Abnormal and
Social Psychology, 21, 161–169.
(1927) "Primary emotions." Psychological Review, 34, 336–363.
(1927) "Consciousness, motation, and emotion." Psyche, 29, 40–52.
(1927) "Primary colors and primary emotions." Psyche, 30, 4–33.
(1927) "Motor consciousness as a basis for emotion." Journal of Abnormal
and Social Psychology, 22, 140-150.
(1928) "Materialism, vitalism and psychology." Psyche, 8, 15–34.
(1929) "Bodily symptoms of elementary emotions." Psyche, 10, 70–86.
(1929) "The psychonic theory of consciousness—an experimental study," (with
C.D. King). Psyche, 9, 39–5.
(1938) "'You might as well enjoy it.'" Rotarian, 53, No. 3, 22–25.
(1938) "What people are for." Rotarian, 53, No. 2, 8-10.
(1944) "Why 100,000,000 Americans read comics." The American Scholar,
13 (1), 35-44.
(1944) "Women can out-think men!" Ladies Home Journal, 61 (May), 4-5.
(1947) "Lie detection's bodily basis and test procedures," in: P.L. Harriman
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychology, New York, 354-363.
Articles
"Consciousness," "Defense mechanisms," and "Synapse" in the 1929 edition of
the Encyclopedia Britannica.
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