Elza Kučera (1883-1972) is significant as one of the first women experimental psychologists shortly after Wilhelm Wundt began to develop this new discipline. She led her experiments at a laboratory in Bonn, at her own laboratory in Zagreb and at the Psychological Laboratory of the Physiology Institute of the University of Zagreb. Together with two colleagues from Poland, she designed tests to examine the characteristics of nations that were used in Poland and in Croatia. Following Wundt, she combined psychology and philosophy. In her texts, one can notice that the problems which are originally of purely philosophical provenience, such as the question of free will, are approached from the perspective of experimental psychology. She was also a member of the editorial board of the Croatian Journal of Philosophy and Psychology, which published both philosophical and psychological texts. In this paper, I am paying special attention to Elsa Kučera’s psychological work and showing the influence Wundt had on her work. Moreover, I am will show, in detail, the links between psychology and philosophy in her published psychological works.

Elza Kučera, Wilhelm Wundt, experimental psychologist, philosophy