History of Psychology in Autobiography (eBook)

Leendert P. Mos (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2009 | 2009
IX, 245 Seiten
Springer New York (Verlag)
978-0-387-88499-8 (ISBN)

Infos

Since the 17^th 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 20^th 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.

Inhalt

Preface 5
Contents 9
Against the Tide: Making Waves and Breaking Silences 10
Looking Back to the Future 10
Growing Up in “Dark Times” 14
An Exhilarating Discovery: The Sorbonne and the Potentials of Knowledge 18
Social Psychology in the 1950s: A Science in Gestation 19
Becoming a Social Psychologist in the 1960s or the Discreet Charms of Mainstream 21
Breaking Away: Shifting Paradigm 24
And What Now? Did She Do Well? 40
References 42
Reflections On My Years in Psychology 46
Introduction (From a Talk Given at Cheiron, 1994) 46
Interlude 1 84
Interlude 2 89
Interlude 3 90
Selected Bibliography 95
Significant data 96
Confessions of a Marginal Psychologist 98
Lehrjahre : Years of Learning 98
Wanderjahre : Years of Journeying 107
New World 121
References 137
Professional Marginalization in Psychology: Choice or Destiny? 139
Introduction 139
Biography 140
Psychological Training 142
The Italian Immigrant Experience 145
Career as a Psychologist 148
The Duquesne Years 149
Issues Surrounding the Development of an Alternative Psychology 150
A Sociology of Knowledge Perspective 151
The Meaning of Psychology 152
Psychology and Science 157
The Search for a More Adequate Philosophy of Science 159
The Scientist–Practitioner Model 162
References 163
Psychology in Self-Presentations “The Life of a Maverick” 166
Autobiography as a Self-Presentation and Verbal Communication 166
My Background 168
My Path to Psychology 170
My Life as a Psychologist: Its Main Steps and Stations 172
My Life as a Psychologist as Reflected in its Dominant Research Fields and Interests 175
References 181
The Autobiography of a Marginal Psychologist: As Much as I Like Bob 185
The Evolution of an Outsider 187
Meetings with Fromm and Other Neo-Freudians 188
The First Job 189
Communicating Thoughts on Communication 192
The Interdisciplinary Approach 194
Dialogues 196
The Three Faces of the Scholar 199
The Bibliomania in Me 200
Investigations of Language and Culture 201
Sybil: The Riddle of Multiple Personalities 203
Manufacturing Social Distress 209
Rieber’s Gang 210
Joe Jaffe 210
Herbert Spiegel 211
Tom Langner and Other Members of the Gang 212
International Psychology and Otto Klineberg 213
Vygotsky 214
References 216
In Search and Proof of Human Beings, Not Machines 217
The Challenge 217
The Early Years 219
Growing Up 221
College and Graduate School 223
Florida State University 226
Washington State University 228
Saint Louis University 231
Purdue University 235
Loyola University Chicago 239
A Different Psychology? 242
References 244
Name Index 247

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.6.2009
• Reihe/Serie: Path in Psychology
• Reihe/Serie: Path in Psychology
• Zusatzinfo: IX, 245 p.
• Verlagsort: New York
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Persönlichkeitsstörungen
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften
• Schlagworte: Affect • awareness • belonging • Germany • History of psychology • marginalization • Psyche • Psychology • Research • Science • State
• ISBN-10: 0-387-88499-8 / 0387884998
• ISBN-13: 978-0-387-88499-8 / 9780387884998