There have been three significant breakaways from the American Psychological Association (APA) as a result of its emphasis on professional practice as opposed to “pure” or scientific psychology. In the first, Titchener organized “the Experimentalists” in 1904 (renamed “Society of Experimentalists,” 1929) as an alternative to APA. Following that, the Psychonomic Society (1959) and American Psychological Society (1989; renamed Association for Psychological Science, 2006) broke away from APA. Titchener’s conflict with Ludwig Geissler might be read as a case study of some of the early issues associated with such breakaways. For better understanding of Titchener and Geissler, biographical sections are included with more about Titchener as he is more prominent in the history of psychology literature. Their primary conflict, a private one, was revealed in 14 extant letters between Titchener and Geissler. Titchener was persistently critical of applied psychology. Geissler, Titchener’s student, was the principal founder of the Journal of Applied Psychology. A secondary conflict involved Titchener’s persistent effort to convince Geissler to leave his position in Virginia and return “East, up into the center of things again.” Geissler (1923) eventually responded with a critique of Titchener’s structuralism. In spite of several longstanding disagreements, the two maintained a cordial professional relationship, and in the end, Titchener showed increasing respect for applications of psychology.

由于美国心理学会（APA）偏重于专业实践而不是“纯粹”或科学心理学，因此取得了三项重大突破。最初，Titchener于1904年组织了“实验主义者”（更名为“实验主义者学会”，1929年），作为APA的替代方案。此后，心理学会（1959年）和美国心理学会（1989年；更名为心理科学协会，2006年）脱离了APA。蒂切纳与路德维希·盖斯勒（Ludwig Geissler）的冲突可能被解读为与此类脱离相关的一些早期问题的案例研究。为了更好地了解Titchener和Geissler，有关Titchener的传记部分也包括在内，因为他在心理学文献史上的地位更加突出。他们的主要冲突是私人冲突，Titchener和Geissler之间的14封现存信件中揭示了这一点。狄金纳（Titchener）一直对应用心理学持批评态度。蒂森纳（Titchener）的学生盖斯勒（Geissler）是应用心理学杂志。次要冲突涉及Titchener的不懈努力，以说服盖斯勒（Geissler）离开他在弗吉尼亚州的职位并返回“东方，再次回到事物的中心”。盖斯勒（Geissler，1923年）最终对蒂切纳的结构主义提出了批评。尽管存在一些长期的分歧，但两者仍保持着亲切的专业关系，最终，Titchener表现出了对心理学应用的越来越多的尊重。