Psychology and Postmodernism

Steinar Kvale (1938-2008) was professor of educational psychology and director of the Centre of Qualitative Research at the University of Aarhus, and adjunct faculty at Saybrook Institute, San Francisco. He was born in Norway and graduated from the University of Oslo. He continued his studies at the University of Heidelberg with an Alexander von Humboldt scholarship and was a visiting professor at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, and West Georgia University, Carrolton, and the University of Bergen. His long-term concern was with the implications of such continental philosophies as phenomenology, hermeneutics, and dialectics for psychology and education.

`This far-ranging exploration of the implications of a postmodern culture for psychology represents an international array of perspectives... it examines the relations of postmodernism to feminism, capitalism, methodology, the human sciences, the arts, epistemology, subjectivity, science and psychoanalysis. In doing so, it provides a portrait of psychology at the cutting edge of developments in the arts and humanities. Until recently, these developments had been simply ignored by psychology. Now, they are beginning to be bandied about by the appropriation of poorly understood phrases and ideas. This volume should add real depth to that dialogue′ - The Humanistic Psychologist`In this very readable volume, psychologists have gathered around them postmodernists from other disciplines to celebrate (albeit with a couple of dissenting voices) postmodernity′ - British Journal of Psychology

• Introduction - Steinar KvaleFrom the Archaeology of the Psyche to the Architecture of Cultural LandscapesToward a Postmodern Psychology - Kenneth J GergenPostmodern Psychology - Steinar KvaleA Contradiction in Terms?`Getting in Touch′ - John ShotterThe Meta-Methodology of a Postmodern Science of Mental LifePostmodern Subjects - Mike MichaelTowards a Transgressive Social PsychologyPostmodernism and the Human Sciences - Patti LatherAn Introduction to Deconstructionist Psychology - Paul RicherPostmodernism and Subjectivity - Lars L[/]ovliePostmodern Self-Psychology Mirrored in Science and the Arts - Neil YoungPostmodern Epistemology of Practice - Donald E PolkinghorneThe Epic of Disbelief - Louis A SassThe Postmodernist Turn in Contemporary PsychoanalysisFrom Mod Mascu-linity to Post-Mod Macho - Mary GergenA Feminist Re-PlayFrom Theory to Practice and Back Again - Seth ChaiklinWhat Does Postmodern Philosophy Contribute to Psychological Science?`Postmodernism′ and `Late Capitalism′ - Peter MadsenOn Terms and Realities