of respect. There is some evidence that even though she rarely wrote about race and racial differences, she may not have ruled out racial primitivity. At this time, Bender was considered an expert in the psychology of African American children because the majority of the children at Bellevue were African American. Although she documented race when conducting her research, she often divided the differences in race into two categories; Functional (significant differences that influence behavior) and Non-functional (differences have no significant impact on behavior). In short, she believed that there were differences in the races, and some made a difference while others did not. Bender used the word "primitive" to describe French Guinean natives and used the term "civilized" to refer to African Americans. Describing African Americans as "civilized" was not the norm at the time. Bender explained that "primitive" did not mean intellectually different, and that to her it described those who were not exposed to the same education and culture as those she considered "civilized". Even though Bender was not considered a Gestaltist, she had many standpoints that related to this belief. She believed that all people are made up of a sum of their parts, and that race was only one factor in what made a person who they are. Experiments and therapies While conducting her research, Bender implemented several experimental procedures and used many therapeutic methods. Some of these experiments and therapies, as well as her diagnoses, may be considered inaccurate and unethical by today's standards. However, the zeitgeist of the times was much different than that of today, and many of the procedures used by Bender were being used by others around the same time. During the 1930s and the 1950s, when Bender was working at Bellevue Hospital, there was little knowledge in the realm of mental disorders. Many childhood psychiatric disorders were attributed to bad behavior or unsatisfactory upbringing. Bender was one of the first to propose that there was something neurologically impaired with these children. Bender diagnosed many children with "childhood Schizophrenia", and sought to treat these patients. It is important to note that with more knowledge, clinicians today would most likely diagnose these children with developmental or behavioral disorders. In an attempt to treat those patients diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia, Bender employed electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) after finding that the practice was successful in other applications. ECT was used in an experiment in