Furth, Hans G.

Hearing. Born to Jewish parents in Vienna, Austria; converted to Catholicism at age 15, but still had to flee to England when the Nazis took over. Graduated the Royal Academy of Music in London, 1940, but changed his mind about a music career. Spent 10 years as a monk, then moved to Canada to study psychology. Master's from the University of Ottowa (1954) and a doctorate from Portland State University (1960), then became a professor of psychology at the Catholic University of America, where he remained until his 1990 retirement. His first book (1966) was Thinking without Language: Psychological Implications of Deafness, a pioneering text in the psychology of the deaf and the implications for deaf education. Furth strongly advocated the use of sign language with deaf people, calling opposition to its use "prejudice" against deaf people. Though he wrote 9 more books, he apparently did not return to the subject of deafness.