Dr. William Moulton Marston - Part 1
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The Facts

William Moulton Marston: A lawyer, a psychologist, invented the first functional lie detector polygraph, created the DISC model of Dominance, Influence, Submission, Compliance for emotions and behavior of normal people, author of Self-Help books, and created the Wonder Woman comics.

Some people live an entire lifetime that seems unremarkable; without certainty that they will leave permanent artifacts of their passing through this world.  They never become rich or famous.  They enjoy brief notoriety which fades with no seeming lasting effect.  They are years and decades ahead of their time in thought, behaviors, and inventiveness.  As they live, they are not highly acclaimed or publicly acknowledged for remarkable contributions.  Yet each idea that they investigate, and act upon, leaves an indelible footprint on the structure and function of society and culture for decades.  They are catalysts.  They go where “angels fear to tread”.  Some of these eccentric individuals sequentially touch multiple sectors of life and we benefit a century later by looking back to see how our lives were changed forever just because they existed.  These unusual people start many things, and in not seeing them to completion, believe that they are leaving nothing behind that will matter after they die.  William Moulton Marston was such a man.  For details of Marston's DISC  Click Here.
You can  take the DISC Assessment Online right now and know your DISC pattern style in 15 minutes!

Brief Review: Part of The Legacy of William Moulton Marston

The Lie Detector Polygraph - Marston's earliest years

In many places Marston is credited with development of the sphygmomanometer, blood pressure measurement, or the systolic blood pressure test.  That is not accurate.   Nothing could be farther from the truth!   He missed that invention by 250 years.  What he did invent is the unique adaptation of blood pressure and physical body changes in the invention of the first functional lie detector apparatus. His first paper on truthfulness was written in 1913.  He would be dismayed at the un-truths told of him today.  He wrote a second paper in 1915 as he finished undergraduate studies at Harvard.  Marston entered Harvard Law School and graduated in 1918, simultaneously formally publishing his early polygraph findings in 1917 on the lie detection invention.  The innovative machine was used in World War I and the above picture is part of Givler's publication of 1920 showing Marston in the center.   William Moulton Marston used the lie detector and had several significant events with the lie detector, but it was 1938 before he wrote of it again extensively.  Why the lie detector or lies as a field of study?  Well... there's more to come about that.

DISC - Dominance, Influence, Submission, Compliance -
Marston's 1920's research and work in Psychology, Emotions, and Behavior

The model here is close to  Marston's DISC original model and theory.  William Moulton Marston became Dr. Marston in 1921 when he completed doctoral studies at Harvard in the newly developing field of Psychology.  In the early 20's 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 power and their effect on personality and human behavior.
For details of Marston's DISC Click Here.

These findings contributed greatly to the field of psychology as did his work in consciousness, colors, primary emotions, and bodily symptoms.  He wrote prolifically; as well as contributing to the doctoral theses of two significant persons in the field of psychology.  The picture to the right shows Marston researching Emotions of Normal People, the 1928 book which formally presenting his findings; but he had written about DISC four years earlier, and he published a second book on DISC, Integrative Psychology, in 1931.

Marston really wanted to develop a unit of measurement of energy, mental energy.  DISC came, by design, from his search for measurements of the energy of behavior and consciousness.  William Moulton Marston did NOT develop the DISC test or assessment.  In fact, he never used it as an assessment at all.  However, in 1930, his best friend did use it as an assessment in a book on success bandit was published as one of the first in the newly emerging field of Self-Help publications.  We now know DISC as Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, & Conscientiousness.

Very practically, Marston did substantially apply his DISC model and theory in the real world when he consulted with Universal Studios in 1930 to help them transition from silent picture movies to "talking picture" movies.  Even today it is easy to see the remnants of that contribution to the entertainment industry.  After 1931, Marston never mentioned DISC again!  It seems he would find, or not find, the answers he was seeking, lose interest, and then move to a new area of innovation and creativity.  But today we still use DISC in all settings, in use for over 30 years, taken by over 50 million people, and2004 research introduced new models using Marston's original findings.  And... well... there's more to come about that too!

You can  take the DISC Assessment Online right now and know your DISC pattern style in 15 minutes!

Writing for the Public - Historical Novels and Self-Help Books

William Moulton Marston placed his entire focus in life on "normal" people.  He was most interested in the common, ordinary, day-to-day challenges which people meet.  He was not interested in psychotic, mental illness, or "crazy" behavior.  He wanted to help those who needed it most.  He also wanted to help himself earn a living to support a growing family in the midst of the depression.  In 2007 we will see Marston enjoy a bit of reintroduction with his work... well, there's more to come on that too...

Venus With Us: A Tale of the Caesar, was Marston's 1932 historical novel.  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 through 1939 on topics of popularity, courage, attitudes, and determination and they were mass marketed to the public in the emerging self-help industry.  A century later Marston's finest work remains in either the entertainment, judicial, or self-help training industry.  He was a creative genius in the art of finding those universal truths valued by all.  Ever a devotee of all manner of entertainment, he even wrote a biography of F.F. Proctor, Vaudeville Pioneer in 1943 in the midst of his greatest contribution to entertainment, Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman - An Innovation by William Moulton Marston as Charles Moulton:
A culmination of all that had come before

Marston's was schooled in the Greek and Roman classics as a young man.  He also was intimately and personally involved with earliest movements for women's rights to birth control, women's rights to vote, women's rights to work... he was most definitely a champion for women.  Gloria Steinem acknowledges his contributions to herself and to women, many years after Marston's death, when she published the first issue of Ms. Magazine. 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 #8 of the All Star Comics (picture on the left).  Her picture was not on the cover in 1941.  She is not even mentioned in the publicity.  She arrived without fanfare. She debuts on the cover in 1942.   She is created and brilliantly presented with Greek and Roman goddess archetypes, she uses a lasso for truth, anther heroic behaviors have will, power, and the use of the behavioral style dimensions of DISC, dominance, influence, submission, and compliance, to accomplish her missions. Much has been contrived about a sexual bondage connection to some of Wonder Woman's behaviors.  They are simply from those who forget that William Moulton Marston wrote not only for entertainment, but he wrote to get a message across.  Wonder Woman gained front page Sensation Comics presentation in January 1942 (picture on right and it only took her a few months to become so popular that DC Comics gave her own issue in the Summer of 1942. 

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 put her in the back of a comic at first and William Moulton Marston, a well-known psychologist, used a pen name writing as Charles Moulton.  They need not have worried.  She was a hit.

Wonder Woman remains a popular model and heroine and in 2007 we will enjoy a new reintroduction in the movies theaters of our classic goddess creation of Marston's.  Marston's legacy continues.  There's more to come on that too....

Summary

We delight in the contributions of Marston.  If there were only one sentence to describe this big, jolly, laughing, outgoing innovative genius it would be:  "William Moulton Marston simply had enough love to go around."  He had enough love for everyone and/or everything in his life.

William Moulton Marston was a lawyer graduating from Harvard in 1918, and he changed the criminal justice system forever with a machine.  He introduced major prison reform.  He was a man, and he was America’s first feminist in print syndication.  He promoted smart women.  He was drawn to them.  He never owned a successful business, but was called upon by industry to consult using the first forms of applied psychology to business.  He believed smart, powerful women had magic powers and he worked beside them in the field of psychology that did not welcome women.  Marston was intimately acquainted with the movement to allow women to practice birth control and to vote.  Women fighting against restraint influenced every belief and action of 40 years of his life   

He was a psychologist, who believed all people were “normal.”  What we see on our movie screens and the colors in which we see it were initiated by Marston.  How radio and media words come to our ears were influenced by this unique man.  He worked with and supported his best friend; they changed journalism and introduced the self-help book industry.  What we read in the back section of our daily newspapers was changed by his venture into comics for adults.  Marston was part of the first research group who tracked the chemical messengers in the brain and proposed that it was an imbalance of electrical impulses and chemicals.  Bill wrote one of the first historical novels.  He lived the “sixties” half a century before his peers, and with as little public appreciation of those lifestyle choices.  Marston left indelible, dramatic footprints in time as he stepped outside the common path of man to tread with angels.  We benefit.

You can take the DISC Assessment Online and Know your DISC style using Marston in 15 minutes!

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