Pan Shu (psychologist)

Pan Shu
潘菽
Pan in 1921
Born	Pan Younian (1897-07-13)July 13, 1897 Luping, Yixing, Fujian, Qing China
Died	March 26, 1988(1988-03-26) (aged 90)
Academic background
Education	Peking University, Indiana University, University of Chicago
Doctoral advisor	Harvey A. Carr
Academic work
Discipline	Psychologist
Sub-discipline	Theoretical psychologist
Institutions	Nanjing University, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Pan Shu (13 July 1897 – 26 March 1988) was a Chinese psychologist. Born in Yixing, Jiangsu, he studied philosophy at Peking University from 1917 to 1920, before he traveled to the United States to attend Indiana University and the University of Chicago. Initially focused on education, he began studying psychology, achieving his doctorate in 1926. Upon his return to China the following year, he became a professor at what would become Nanjing University, where he oversaw the formation of a unified psychology department. He became president of the university in 1951, before transferring alongside its psychology department to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1956.

Pan served as the first president of the reestablished Chinese Psychological Society and developed a theory of psychology influenced by Marxism. He described psychology as an intermediary between natural and social sciences. Although psychological studies were repressed during the Cultural Revolution, Pan continued it in secret. He was active in the reconstruction of the field during the late 1970s, resuming his post as director of the CAS Institute of Psychology. He continued to serve as the president of the Chinese Psychological Society until 1984, when he became the society's honorary president. He continued to write until his death in 1988.