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 have contributed to an alternate vision of
psychological science is that they never considered themselves, or
were considered by others, as belonging to the mainstream of the
discipline. In considering an alternative history of psychology in
autobiography, the editor invited contributors whose research and
writings have pushed the discipline in other directions, pushed its
limits, and whose scholarship finds its philosophical framework
outside the discipline altogether. If these contributors may not be
model inquirers, their scholarship is very much a matter of
consequence for those who wish to understand psychology. Among the
outliers included here are those who devoted themselves to the
writing of psychology, examining its history, theories, research
and professional practices, and who enthusiastically embraced, over
the course of their lives, the discipline as a human science. Their
influence has been subtle as has been their appeal to many students
who affection for the discipline finds its promise in a discerning
self-awareness and a critical understanding of others and their
worlds.
This volume is not simply a collection of personal chronologies
which might inspire or lend appreciation to a younger generation.
Our contributors write from their personal and professional
experience, of course, but they write of their thinking and
understanding of the psyche as an aspect of human life, of
psychology as an academic form of human sciences' inquiry, and so
bring to bear their scientific and philosophical imagination to
their personal challenges in their chosen vocation as
psychologists. Our contributors cover a broad swath of the second
half of the 20th century, the century of psychology. Nurturing the
discipline from within various philosophical, social-political, and
cultural roots, their autobiographies exemplify marginality, if not
alienation, from the mainstream, even as their professional and
personal lives give expression to engaged scholarship, commitment
to vocation and, straightforwardly and reflectively, a love of the
heart.
From Germany, Carl Graumann, from France, Erika Apfelbaum, from
Canada, David Bakan and Kurt Danziger, and from the United States,
Amedeo Giorgi, Robert Rieber, and Joseph Rychlak, relate their
lives to the larger contexts of our times. Their personal stories
are an integral part of the historiography of our discipline.
Indeed, a contribution to historiography of our discipline is
constituted in their autobiographical self-presentations, for their
writings attest as much to their lives as model inquirers as they
do to the possibility of psychology as a human science.
General
Imprint: |
Springer-Verlag New York
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Path in Psychology |
Release date: |
May 2009 |
First published: |
2009 |
Editors: |
Leendert P. Mos
|
Dimensions: |
235 x 155 x 15mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
245 |
Edition: |
2009 ed. |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-387-88500-1 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Psychology >
General
|
LSN: |
0-387-88500-5 |
Barcode: |
9780387885001 |
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