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: |
December 2010 |
First published: |
2009 |
Editors: |
Leendert P. Mos
|
Dimensions: |
235 x 155 x 13mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
245 |
Edition: |
Softcover reprint of hardcover 1st ed. 2009 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-4419-2780-4 |
Categories: |
Books >
Science & Mathematics >
Science: general issues >
History of science
|
LSN: |
1-4419-2780-8 |
Barcode: |
9781441927804 |
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