Since the 17th century, autobiography has an honorable place in the study of history. In 1930, the preeminent historian of psychology, Edwin Boring, writes that a science separated from its history lacks direction and promises a future of uncertain importance. To understand what psychology is and what it is becoming, the autobiographies of famous psychologists is history at it best. Here we find model inquirers of the science who offer a personalized account of themselves and their vocation in the context of the history of the science. What is characteristic of many of those who...
Since the 17th century, autobiography has an honorable place in the study of history. In 1930, the preeminent historian of psychology, E...
THE FORMATIVE TENDENCY I have often pointed out that in my work with individuals in therapy, and in my experience in encounter groups, I have been led to the con viction that human nature is essentially constructive. When, in a ther apeutic climate (which can be objectively defined) a person becomes sharply aware of more of his or her internal experiencing and of the stimuli and demands from the external world, thus acquiring a full range of options, the person tends to move in the direction of becoming a socially constructive organism. But many are critical of this point of view. Why should...
THE FORMATIVE TENDENCY I have often pointed out that in my work with individuals in therapy, and in my experience in encounter groups, I have been led...
Benjamin Lee Center for Psychosocial Studies On March 29-April 1, 1979, the Center for Psychosocial Studies held a conference in Chicago on "New Approaches to the Self" in which all the authors in this volume partici pated. Over the years the Center has acted as a communica tions link and coordination point for interdisciplinary dis cussions and research. Several years ago, we discovered that there was a renewed interest among psychoanalysts, anthro pologists, and developmental psychologists in the investiga tion of the self, and the reason for this groundswell of ac tivity was the discovery...
Benjamin Lee Center for Psychosocial Studies On March 29-April 1, 1979, the Center for Psychosocial Studies held a conference in Chicago on "New Appro...
The creation of this book stems largely from the current centennial cele bration of the founding in Leipzig of Wundt's psychological laboratory. Wundt is acknowledged by many as one of the principal founders of experimental psychology. His laboratory, his journal, and his students were all influential in the transmission of the new psychology from Germany to all parts of the world. Nevertheless, until recently, psychol ogists and historians of science hardly recognized the scope and breadth of Wundt's influence, not to mention his contributions. It was first through E. B. Titchener, and then...
The creation of this book stems largely from the current centennial cele bration of the founding in Leipzig of Wundt's psychological laboratory. Wundt...
Qualitative methodologies in cultural psychology often lack the objective and verifiable character of quantitative analysis. Author Carl Ratner corrects this shortcoming by rigorously systematizing qualitative methods. The book discusses, for example, means of systematizing such subjective reports as interviews, letters, and diaries, which often yield valuable data that is not easily quantified. Ratner argues that "complex psychological phenomena are expressed through extended responses" and hence are best studied by new, more regularized qualitative methods that go beyond measuring simple,...
Qualitative methodologies in cultural psychology often lack the objective and verifiable character of quantitative analysis. Author Carl Ratner correc...
East meets West in this fascinating exploration of conceptions of personal identity in Indian philosophy and modern Euro-American psychology. Author Anand Paranjpe considers these two distinct traditions with regard to historical, disciplinary, and cultural gaps' in the study of the self, and in the context of such theoretical perspectives as univocalism, relativism, and pluralism. The text includes a comparison of ideas on self as represented by two eminent thinkers-Erik H. Erikson for the Western view, and Advaita Vedanta for the Indian.
East meets West in this fascinating exploration of conceptions of personal identity in Indian philosophy and modern Euro-American psychology. Author A...
Some Implications of the Perceptgenetic Studies We should be most grateful to Professor Gudmund Smith for this compilation of studies on perceptgenesis (PG). Smith and his colleagues at Lund University are part of a small insurgency in psychology that has worked gamely and in relative obscurity to document the presence of subjective phases in the process leading to a perceptual object and the infrastructure of this process in the person ality. Smith describes ingenious methods to probe this hidden undersurface, and of a perceptual object is, in the ordinary demonstrate that the experiential...
Some Implications of the Perceptgenetic Studies We should be most grateful to Professor Gudmund Smith for this compilation of studies on perceptgenesi...
This book presents new insights into Freud's famous "discovery" of the unconscious and the subsequent development of psychoanalytic theories. The authors explore the original context in which these ideas arose and the central debate about mind as matter or something that transcends matter. In the course of this examination, it is demonstrated that Freud was influenced not only by the 19th century scientific milieu, but also by ancient cultures. While it is known that Freud was an avid collector of ancient artifacts and generally interested in these older cultures, this book systematically...
This book presents new insights into Freud's famous "discovery" of the unconscious and the subsequent development of psychoanalytic theories. The auth...
In this new millenium it may be fair to ask, "Why look at Wundt?" Over the years, many authors have taken fairly detailed looks at the work and accomplishments of Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920). This was especially true of the years around 1979, the centennial of the Leipzig Institute for Experimental Psychology, the birthplace of the "graduate program" in psychology. More than twenty years have passed since then, and in the intervening time those centennial studies have attracted the attention and have motivated the efforts of a variety of historians, philosophers, psychologists, and other social...
In this new millenium it may be fair to ask, "Why look at Wundt?" Over the years, many authors have taken fairly detailed looks at the work and accomp...
If the reader will excuse a brief anecdote from my own intellectual history, I would like to use it as an introduction to this book. In 1957, I was a sophomore at an undergraduate liberal arts college major ing in medieval history. This was the year that we were receiving our first introduction to courses in philosophy, and I took to this study with a passion. In pursuing philosophy, I discovered the area called "philosophical psychology," which was a Thomistic category of inquiry. For me, "philosophical psychology" meant a more intimate study of the soul (psyche), and I immediately concluded...
If the reader will excuse a brief anecdote from my own intellectual history, I would like to use it as an introduction to this book. In 1957, I was a ...
