Path in Psychology – serie

This is a biography of Frantz Fanon. It presents an absorbing and careful ac­ count of several impressive themes. First is the review and assessment of Fanon's life. Second is a theory of psychology, by the author, which will aug­ ment and prove useful to theorists and practitioners who focus on Third World people. And lastly there is a broad and systematic integration of many areas of scholarship including philosophy, anthropology, political science, history, so­ ciology, mythology, public health, and economics. Bulhan's writing is lucid, creative, and persuasive. It demonstrates that all these scholarly areas must be handled with erudition in order to build a baseline for understanding both Fanon and the psychology of oppression. Readers of Fanon will be familiar with the psychology of oppression which he presented so forcefully. How life events and experiences led to the formula­ tion of this psychology is the chief emphasis of the author. Yet the book also gives scintillating clinical proof that Fanon made many other significant con­ tributions to his field. He was an outstanding and dedicated physician as well as a philosopher and political activist.

Something instructive occurred in the process of entitling the present collection. Both editor and publisher sought a simple and succinct rubric for the various pieces of work. But they rapidly and reluctantly reached the consensus that, by either intellectual or marketing criteria, the inser­ tion of the adjective "psychological" to qualify the noun "development" was a communicative necessity. Much to the chagrin of the develop­ mental psychologist, the term development still connotes-to the world at large as well as the general community of publishers, librarians, and computer archivists-the modernization of nation states. Inside and outside the university, I find that, when asked, "What are you in­ terested in?" I am not at liberty to reply, "The concept of development," without being absorbed immediately into a discussion of Third World studies. The approach of the present volume should be taken as an exhortation to psychologists to take the genealogy of "development'' seriously. The history of the discipline is not so different from the histo­ ry of the word and, as we shall discover, the concern with developmen­ tal progress cannot easily be separated from the urge for dominion. This volume presents a selection from the recent critical scholarship on psychological development. The emphasis is on rethinking the field of developmental psychology at the level of theory.

Toward the Psychology of Malefaction This is a book about human wickedness. I would like to identify two obstacles in the path that this book seeks to traverse. One obstacle is an inappropriate scientism; the other is an inappropriate moralism. There is a kind of scientism that prevents us from seeing that human beings are responsible for what happens on the planet. It is a view that, in the name of science, downplays the role of human beings as agents in what takes place. This view is often expressed in a paradigm that regards human conduct as the "dependent variable," while anything that impinges on the human being is considered the "independent variable." The paradigm further takes the relationship between the dependent and independent variable to be the result of natural law. It charac­ teristically ignores the possibility that individual or collective deci­ sion or policy, generated by human beings and not by natural law, is and can be regulatory of conduct.

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, ethnonationalism has left its indelible mark on Europe and every other continent. The latest events in the Balkans, in central and eastern Europe, and in the former Soviet Union unequivocally testify to the power and influence of ethnonationalism at the end of the second millennium. What forces make people so committed to their ethnonational groups that they are ready to ignore all other concerns, first and foremost the rights and interests of people of other ethnicities? What is the social psychological and anthropological underpinning of ethnonationalism? And finally; why and how do people adhere to nation­ alist attitudes and beliefs? These questions are virtually impossible to avoid for anyone who has directly felt the impact of ethnonationalism, but they also present them­ selves to anyone who has indirectly experienced the prejudices unleashed by ethnonationalist forces. This book attempts to answer all these questions by focusing on national feeling and the social psychological and anthropological founda­ tions that underly the sense of belonging that is essential to nationalism. No matter how qualitatively different nationalist attitudes and beliefs are from national sentiment, the latter has to be considered in any study of national­ ism.

Qualitative methodologies in cultural psychology often lack the objective and verifiable character of quantitative analysis. Author Carl Ratner corrects this shortcoming by rigorously systematizing qualitative methods. The book discusses, for example, means of systematizing such subjective reports as interviews, letters, and diaries, which often yield valuable data that is not easily quantified. Ratner argues that "complex psychological phenomena are expressed through extended responses" and hence are best studied by new, more regularized qualitative methods that go beyond measuring simple, overt responses.

East meets West in this fascinating exploration of conceptions of personal identity in Indian philosophy and modern Euro-American psychology. Author Anand Paranjpe considers these two distinct traditions with regard to historical, disciplinary, and cultural `gaps' in the study of the self, and in the context of such theoretical perspectives as univocalism, relativism, and pluralism. The text includes a comparison of ideas on self as represented by two eminent thinkers-Erik H. Erikson for the Western view, and Advaita Vedanta for the Indian.

This title presents the construct of perceptgenesis, a psychodynamic theory pioneered by the author that explains reality as constructed from within by means of hidden but retraceable microprocesses under constraints imposed by outside stimuli. Supported by a process-oriented theoretical framework, the approach is clinically relevant to such fields as personnel selection, creativity, development, psychosomatics, and psychopathology.

In this new millenium it may be fair to ask, "Why look at Wundt?" Over the years, many authors have taken fairly detailed looks at the work and accomplishments of Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920). This was especially true of the years around 1979, the centennial of the Leipzig Institute for Experimental Psychology, the birthplace of the "graduate program" in psychology. More than twenty years have passed since then, and in the intervening time those centennial studies have attracted the attention and have motivated the efforts of a variety of historians, philosophers, psychologists, and other social scientists. They have profited from the questions raised earlier about theoretical, methodological, sociological, and even political aspects affecting the organized study of mind and behavior; they have also proposed some new directions for research in the history of the behavioral and social sciences. With the advantage of the historiographic perspective that twenty years can bring, this volume will consider this much-heralded "founding father of psychology" once again. Some of the authors are veterans of the centennial who contributed to a very useful volume, edited by Robert W. Rieber, Wilhelm Wundt and the Making of a Scientific Psychology (New York: Plenum Press, 1980). Others are scholars who have joined Wundt studies since then, and have used that book, among others, as a guide to further work. The first chapter, "Wundt before Leipzig," is essentially unchanged from the 1980 volume.

Although many books are written about bereavement, very few are written about the fear of one's own death and most of these focus chiefly on terminal illness. In contrast, this book looks at the ways in which the fear of death operates on a back burner throughout our lives and how it influences the choices we make and the paths that we follow in life. The author presents a "moral hierarchy" of behaviour used in coping with the fear of death and dying.

The author proposes that the four earliest British North American colonies in the United States promoted the development of distinct regional identities and that this cultural legacy affected identity development, as well as behavioural patterns, differently in each region. He compares data from the North American colonies to the situation in England and discovers that the findings in the latter's eight standard regions are very similar to those in the United States.

This book seeks to deepen our understanding of the cultural aspects of human psychology. These are aspects of psychology that originate in, are formed by, reflect, perpetuate, and modify social processes and factors outside the individual mind. My motivation in pursuing cultural psychol­ ogy is both scientific and political. I believe that construing psychology as a cultural phenomenon is the scientifically correct way to understand psychology; a cultural analysis of psychology can also provide crucial insights for political action to improve human life. The scientific and political aspects of cultural psychology are inter­ dependent and reciprocally reinforcing. The scientific identification and explanation of cultural aspects of psychology can identify societal changes that will enhance human psychology-to help people become more intel­ ligent, far-sighted, logical, harmonious, helpful, moral, and secure, and less stressful, disturbed, prejudiced, competitive, aggressive, lonely, insecure, depressed, mystified, and irrational. Conversely, the political orientation of cultural psychology to enhance psychological functioning through comprehending and improving the social fabric advances the scientific understanding of psychology as a cultural phenomenon. Social goals direct cultural psychology to devise special theories and methods that investigate cultural origins, formation, characteristics, and functions of psychology. Traditional theories and methods are not necessarily appli­ cable because they are informed by a vision of psychology as individual, biological, or universal. The scientific study of cultural psychology is a check on political analyses.

Heinz Werner (1890-1964) was one of the three key developmental psychologists of the 20th century – along with Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. This book is a new exploration of Werner’s ideas and their social contexts – in Vienna in his student years, in Hamburg up to 1933, followed by the years of transit as an immigrant to America at times of economic depression, finally culminating in his establishment of the prominent "Clark tradition" in American psychology in the 1950s. The book offers an in-depth analysis of Werner’s ideas as they were originally formulated in Vienna and Hamburg, and how they were changed by North American influences. Werner’s pivotal role between European and American intellectual traditions is illuminated through the use of rich memories of his former students, unique documents from Werner’s personal library at Clark, and analyses of links with other European traditions in philosophy and biological sciences. The European period (prior to 1933) in Werner’s academic life is found to be definitive for Werner’s contributions to science. The ideas developed in his early career continued in the form of a productive empirical research program in the 1950s at Clark. An analysis of the social-intellectual climate of the development of psychology in America in the 1950s is a special feature of this book that will further enhance an understanding of Werner’s unique contribution This book will be of interest to developmental psychologists, sociologists and historians of science, philosophers, practitioners working in special education and neuropsychology, and for general readers interested in the history of ideas and life courses of scientists.

This book focuses on what other volumes have only touched on, that is the factors that contribute to the rise of certain persons and ideas in the field of psychology. Bringing together noted experts in the field, it describes the process of intellectual reconstructions that determines how we view historical events, and why some ideas die only to be reborn again, as well as why new ideas can quickly topple traditional views. As such, it answers the following questions: what enables a body of work to withstand distortion, labelling, and stereotyping? Why do new revelations in the historical archive renew interest in "re-examining" particular ideas? Through what process does a theory become a school of thought, or a movement attracting adherents?

This is a biography of Frantz Fanon. It presents an absorbing and careful ac­ count of several impressive themes. First is the review and assessment of Fanon's life. Second is a theory of psychology, by the author, which will aug­ ment and prove useful to theorists and practitioners who focus on Third World people. And lastly there is a broad and systematic integration of many areas of scholarship including philosophy, anthropology, political science, history, so­ ciology, mythology, public health, and economics. Bulhan's writing is lucid, creative, and persuasive. It demonstrates that all these scholarly areas must be handled with erudition in order to build a baseline for understanding both Fanon and the psychology of oppression. Readers of Fanon will be familiar with the psychology of oppression which he presented so forcefully. How life events and experiences led to the formula­ tion of this psychology is the chief emphasis of the author. Yet the book also gives scintillating clinical proof that Fanon made many other significant con­ tributions to his field. He was an outstanding and dedicated physician as well as a philosopher and political activist.

Inspired by Howard Gruber’s Evolving Systems Approach, these studies explore creativity in several domains. The idea that the creative person embodies a system of loosely coupled sub-systems – knowledge, purpose, and affect that work together, is viewed here in different chapters that explore this concept. These include autobiographies of incarcerated youth, curricula for moral and civic responsibility, changing attitudes of readers to text (romance novels), as well as case studies of highly creative individuals, such as George Bernard Shaw. Gruber’s approach provides concepts as well as methodological tools which the authors apply to diverse creative processes.This book is a valuable resource for undergraduate as well as graduate level students interested in creativity, development, and education. In addition to the intrinsic interest of each chapter, the guiding theme of the book is the underlying theory of creativity, Gruber’s Evolving Systems Approach, and illustrates the unusual breadth and flexibility of that theory.

Inspired by Howard Gruber's Evolving Systems Approach, these studies explore creativity in several domains. The idea that the creative person embodies a system of loosely coupled sub-systems - knowledge, purpose, and affect that work together, is viewed here in different chapters that explore this concept. These include autobiographies of incarcerated youth, curricula for moral and civic responsibility, changing attitudes of readers to text (romance novels), as well as case studies of highly creative individuals, such as George Bernard Shaw. Gruber's approach provides concepts as well as methodological tools which the authors apply to diverse creative processes. This book is a valuable resource for undergraduate as well as graduate level students interested in creativity, development and education. In addition to the intrinsic interest of each chapter, the guiding theme of the book is the underlying theory of creativity, Gruber's Evolving Systems Approach, and illustrates the unusual breadth and flexibility of that theory.

Heinz Werner (1890-1964) was one of the three key developmental psychologists of the 20th century-along with Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. This book is a new exploration of Werner's ideas and their social contexts-in Vienna in his student years, in Hamburg up to 1933, followed by the years of transit as an immigrant to America at times of economic depression, and -finally, culminating in his establishment of the prominent "Clark tradition" in American psychology since the 1950s. The book offers an in-depth analysis of Werner's ideas--as they were originally formulated in Vienna and Hamburg, and how they were changed by North American influences. Werner's pivotal role between European and American intellectual traditions is illuminated through the use of rich memories of his former students, unique documents from Werner's personal library at Clark, and analyses of links with other European traditions in philosophy and biological sciences,. The European period (prior to 1933) in Werner's academic life is found to be definitive for Werner's contributions to science.The ideas developed in his early career continued in the form of a productive empirical research program in the 1950s at Clark. An analysis of the social-intellectual climate of the development of psychology in America in the 1950s is a special feature of this book that will further enhance an understanding of Werner's unique contribution. This book will be of interest to developmental psychologists, sociologists and historians of science, philosophers, practitioners working in special education and neuropsychology, and for general readers interested in the history of ideas and life courses of scientists.

As both an early disciple of and influence on Freud, Wilhelm Stekel enjoyed a unique position within the analytic movement. More recently, he has been notable more for his ostracism from Freud’s sphere and little else. The Self-Marginalization of Wilhelm Stekel brings a fresh perspective on Stekel, revealing the complex, symbiotic bond between mentor and follower in its many social, interpersonal, and psychological forms.In addition to shedding light on a famous outsider, this biography is set in a dual context of the formative years of psychoanalysis and Freud’s relationships with his colleagues: comparisons and contrasts abound with Adler, Jung, and other, revered exiles from Freudian circles. At the same time, each chapter defines and identifies a particular aspect of the marginalization process, including self-marginalization, the relationship of marginals to the mainstream, and the value of marginalization in the construction of identity. In all, this book will provide -an in-depth look into the social history of psychoanalysis - an informed re-thinking of Stekel’s contributions as theorist and clinician-a new view of marginalization as differentiated from similar social phenomena-previously unpublished correspondence between Freud and Stekel - a new translation of Stekel’s 1926 essay, "On the History of the Analytical Movement"The Self-Marginalization of Wilhelm Stekel peels back layers of history to create a singular addition to our knowledge of the origins of psychoanalysis. Psychologists, social scientists, and readers interested in the history of science will find this book an illuminating glimpse into the lives and legacies of the first psychoanalysts.

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 psycheas 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.

The world changes and we are encouraged to change with it, but is all change good? This book asks us to stop and consider whether the higher education we are providing, and engaging in, for ourselves and our societies is what we ought to have, or what commercial interests want us to have. In claiming that there is a place for a higher education of learning, such as the university, amongst our array of tertiary options the book attempts to explore what this might be. Drawing from the existential literature and in particular Heidegger, the book investigates the case for such a form of higher education and settles on existential trust as the ground upon which the community of scholars that ought to be the university can flourish. This book is written for those who are concerned about the trends towards performativity and for those who are not yet so concerned! It offers a controversial and, some might say, idealistic view of what might be but makes no apology for that since the book proposes that higher education is becoming evermore unacceptable for those who value democracy, tolerance and learning.

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 psycheas 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.

Qualitative methodologies in cultural psychology often lack the objective and verifiable character of quantitative analysis. Author Carl Ratner corrects this shortcoming by rigorously systematizing qualitative methods. The book discusses, for example, means of systematizing such subjective reports as interviews, letters, and diaries, which often yield valuable data that is not easily quantified. Ratner argues that "complex psychological phenomena are expressed through extended responses" and hence are best studied by new, more regularized qualitative methods that go beyond measuring simple, overt responses.

East meets West in this fascinating exploration of conceptions of personal identity in Indian philosophy and modern Euro-American psychology. Author Anand Paranjpe considers these two distinct traditions with regard to historical, disciplinary, and cultural `gaps' in the study of the self, and in the context of such theoretical perspectives as univocalism, relativism, and pluralism. The text includes a comparison of ideas on self as represented by two eminent thinkers-Erik H. Erikson for the Western view, and Advaita Vedanta for the Indian.

This book presents the construct of perceptgenesis, a psychodynamic theory pioneered by the author that explains reality as constructed from within by means of hidden but retraceable microprocesses under constraints imposed by outside stimuli. Supported by a process-oriented theoretical framework, the approach is clinically relevant to such fields as personnel selection, creativity, development, psychosomatics, and psychopathology.

If the reader will excuse a brief anecdote from my own intellectual history, I would like to use it as an introduction to this book. In 1957, I was a sophomore at an undergraduate liberal arts college major­ ing in medieval history. This was the year that we were receiving our first introduction to courses in philosophy, and I took to this study with a passion. In pursuing philosophy, I discovered the area called "philosophical psychology," which was a Thomistic category of inquiry. For me, "philosophical psychology" meant a more intimate study of the soul (psyche), and I immediately concluded that psychology as a discipline must be about this pursuit. This philosophical interest led me to enroll in my first introductory psychology course. Our text for this course was the first edition of Ernest Hilgaard's Introduction to Psychology. My reasons for entering this course were anticipated in the introductory chapter of Hilgaard's book, where the discipline and its boundaries were discussed, and this introduction was to disabuse me of my original intention for enrolling in the course. I was to learn that, in the 20th century, people who called themselves psychologists were no longer interested in perennial philosophical questions about the human psyche or person. In fact, these philosophical questions were considered to be obscurantist and passe. Psychology was now the "scientific" study of human behavior. This definition of psychology by Hilgaard was by no means idiosyncratic to this introductory textbook.

Each of the three great schools of developmental psy- chology represented in this vo1ume--psychoana1ytic, cogni- tive-developmental, and Vygotskian--diverges in important ways. But more recent changes in each discipline have led to new possibilities for theoretical integrations. Each ori- entation has begun to focus upon the problem of "meaning construction", that is, how a person's subjectivity and con- sciousness is created through his interaction with signifi- cant others. Each discipline also discovered that as it switched to meaning and interpretation as the foci of their work, they had to reformulate and, in some cases, reject po- sitions taken by their founding figures. The papers in this volume attempt to describe the newest developments in each of these fields and to foster a theoretical dialogue around the concept of the self. The papers in this book emerged out of discussions at a Conference on the Self, sponsored by the Center for Psychosocial Studies in Chicago.For the psychoanalytic and cognitive-developmental ap- proaches, we can observe a transition from what we call the bio10gism of both traditional Freudian and Piagetian memta- psychologies to a more "communicative-interactionist" point of view. Psychoanalysts have focused on the subjective expe- rience of their patients as constituting a reality in its own right, and therefore have always focused upon problems of communication and interpretation. But Freud's emphasis on bio-sexua1 development led him to create a metapsycho1ogy in which the basic organizing principle is that of drive re- duction.

This book is an outcome of my bicultural experience as a student and teacher of psychology in India and North America. As a student in India, the psychology I learned in the classroom was totally Western in its perspective. A book on Indian economics, called Bharatfya Arthasastra, written by the late Pal)Q. it Dindayal Upadhyaya, inspired me to look into the sources of the Indian intellectual tradition for an indigenous per- spective within the discipline of my training and research. The late Balsastri Hardas suggested K. K. Kolhatkar's Bharatfya Manasasastra, a book that translates and comments on Patanjali's Yoga sutras in Marathi, as a sourcebook of psychological concepts of Indian origin. My response to this initial exposure to Yoga as a system of psychology was one of bewilderment. Having been trained in psychology with Woodworth and Schlosberg's Experimental Psychology as the textbook of psychology, I could not comprehend how ideas so diverse as those of Patanjali and Woodworth and Schlosberg could be designated by a common label- psychology!Obviously, it was necessary to sort out psychology's meaning in different sociocultural contexts, beginning with the most fundamental notions on which psychological concepts are based. This book represents an attempt to understand psychological concepts, especially those re- lating to consciousness and the self, as they developed in the different intellectual traditions and cultural contexts of India and the West.

In this new millenium it may be fair to ask, "Why look at Wundt?" Over the years, many authors have taken fairly detailed looks at the work and accomplishments of Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920). This was especially true of the years around 1979, the centennial of the Leipzig Institute for Experimental Psychology, the birthplace of the "graduate program" in psychology. More than twenty years have passed since then, and in the intervening time those centennial studies have attracted the attention and have motivated the efforts of a variety of historians, philosophers, psychologists, and other social scientists. They have profited from the questions raised earlier about theoretical, methodological, sociological, and even political aspects affecting the organized study of mind and behavior; they have also proposed some new directions for research in the history of the behavioral and social sciences. With the advantage of the historiographic perspective that twenty years can bring, this volume will consider this much-heralded "founding father of psychology" once again. Some of the authors are veterans of the centennial who contributed to a very useful volume, edited by Robert W. Rieber, Wilhelm Wundt and the Making of a Scientific Psychology (New York: Plenum Press, 1980). Others are scholars who have joined Wundt studies since then, and have used that book, among others, as a guide to further work. The first chapter, "Wundt before Leipzig," is essentially unchanged from the 1980 volume.

This book seeks to deepen our understanding of the cultural aspects of human psychology. These are aspects of psychology that originate in, are formed by, reflect, perpetuate, and modify social processes and factors outside the individual mind. My motivation in pursuing cultural psychol­ ogy is both scientific and political. I believe that construing psychology as a cultural phenomenon is the scientifically correct way to understand psychology; a cultural analysis of psychology can also provide crucial insights for political action to improve human life. The scientific and political aspects of cultural psychology are inter­ dependent and reciprocally reinforcing. The scientific identification and explanation of cultural aspects of psychology can identify societal changes that will enhance human psychology-to help people become more intel­ ligent, far-sighted, logical, harmonious, helpful, moral, and secure, and less stressful, disturbed, prejudiced, competitive, aggressive, lonely, insecure, depressed, mystified, and irrational. Conversely, the political orientation of cultural psychology to enhance psychological functioning through comprehending and improving the social fabric advances the scientific understanding of psychology as a cultural phenomenon. Social goals direct cultural psychology to devise special theories and methods that investigate cultural origins, formation, characteristics, and functions of psychology. Traditional theories and methods are not necessarily appli­ cable because they are informed by a vision of psychology as individual, biological, or universal. The scientific study of cultural psychology is a check on political analyses.