This book considers cultural psychology from historical, theoretical, and epistemological perspectives, building an understanding of cultural psychology as a human science and moving beyond the nature-culture dichotomy. The unique collection of chapters seeks to advance the field of cultural psychology by reviving its historical legacies and arguing for its social responsibility in future historical developments. It considers European legacies for cultural psychology as developed by leading figures such as Giambattista Vico, Wilhelm Wundt, Wilhelm Dilthey, and Ernst Cassirer in order to provide insights into a long tradition of thinking from a cultural psychology perspective. The book discusses historical pathways in the rise and repression of cultural psychology and its different historical forms, arguing for the necessity of decolonizing psychology, securing a place for culture in it, and developing an epistemology suited to humankind's meaning-making processes in mutual shaping of psyche and culture. It provides an integrative and historical understanding of the subject and uses the diversity and heterogeneity within the field to offer critical reflections on its achievements. The thoroughly international group of contributors brings diverse analyses of self, body, emotions, culture, and society and considers the future of cultural psychology. The volume is a stimulating read for scholars and students of cultural and theoretical psychology and related areas including philosophy, anthropology, and history.

This book considers cultural psychology from historical, theoretical, and epistemological perspectives, building an understanding of cultural psychology as a human science and moving beyond the nature-culture dichotomy. The unique collection of chapters seeks to advance the field of cultural psychology by reviving its historical legacies and arguing for its social responsibility in future historical developments. It considers European legacies for cultural psychology as developed by leading figures such as Giambattista Vico, Wilhelm Wundt, Wilhelm Dilthey, and Ernst Cassirer in order to provide insights into a long tradition of thinking from a cultural psychology perspective. The book discusses historical pathways in the rise and repression of cultural psychology and its different historical forms, arguing for the necessity of decolonizing psychology, securing a place for culture in it, and developing an epistemology suited to humankind's meaning-making processes in mutual shaping of psyche and culture. It provides an integrative and historical understanding of the subject and uses the diversity and heterogeneity within the field to offer critical reflections on its achievements. The thoroughly international group of contributors brings diverse analyses of self, body, emotions, culture, and society and considers the future of cultural psychology. The volume is a stimulating read for scholars and students of cultural and theoretical psychology and related areas including philosophy, anthropology, and history.

Das Einfuhrungsbuch stellt den aktuellen Stand der Kulturpsychologie bezuglichtheoretischer Ansatze und Methoden in der Breite dar. Es wird zudem aufgezeigt, wie stark sie in verschiedenen Handlungsfeldern verankert ist. Die Kulturpsychologie ist ein interdisziplinares Forschungsgebiet, das weniger darauf abzielt, menschliches Verhalten und Erleben objektiv und kausal zu erklaren, sondern vielmehr bestrebt ist, psychische Phanomene im jeweiligen soziokulturellen Kontext zu verstehen. Hierbei folgt sie einem theoretischen Grundverstandnis, den Menschen als aktiv handelndes Wesen aufzufassen. Sie betont damit im Vergleich zur vorherrschenden nomothetisch ausgerichteten Psychologie andere theoretische und methodische Zugange und stellt insbesondere Intentionalitat, Bedeutungsstrukturiertheit und nicht zuletzt Kulturalitat menschlicher Existenz heraus. Die Kulturpsychologie bezieht sowohl hermeneutische Ansatze in Psychologie, Philosophie, Soziologie und Ethnologie als auch qualitative Methoden zur Erforschung menschlichen Handelns und Erlebens ein.