NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/sci/psycholo/5028

Text File | 1993-01-23 | 3.2 KB | 71 lines

Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Path: sparky!uunet!utcsri!psych.toronto.edu!christo
From: [e-mail] (Christopher Green)
Subject: Re: historical effects on psychology
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 20:10:34 GMT
Lines: 60

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Frederic Alexandre) writes:
>Hello,
>
>I am very interested in the effects of the historical context on
>psychologist theories. For example, it has been said that Freud
>spoke about hysteria and built a theory around it because this desease
>was very frequent in Austria at the end of the XIXth century.
>
>I am trying to build an analysis grid of the historical effects on:
>
>-psycho-analysis
Try Ellenberger's book. I think it's called _The discovery ofthe unconscious_,
or somesuch. It puts a lot of the psychoanalytics' ideas in the context
of their own lives, without trivializing the matter.
>
>-behaviorism
See O'Donnell's book _The rise of behaviorism_. You might also look at
Lawrence Smith's _Behaviorism and logical positivism: A reassessment of
the alliance_ (or, perhaps, Lp&B... I can never remember the order).
>
>-cognitivism
Bernard Baars _The cognitive revolution_. This book is a collection
of interviews with behaviorists, crossover researchers, and full blown
cognitivists. It begins with about the most lucid account of the origins
of the cognitive revolution I've ever read, authored by Baars.
>
>-Lewin's theory
This is a tough one. The roots of Gestalt psych go back the the positivism-
phenomenology split in the 1880's. You might look at Titchener's book
(still available in paperback, I think) called something like _Prolegomena
to systematic psychology_. It is his account of the Wundt-Brentano debate
in the 19th century. On Gestalt, take a look at Kohler's APA Presidential
address (in _American Psychologist_ somewhere in the late 1950s or early
1960s). Also, look at Mary Henle's article on Gestalt movement in Koch &
Leary's _100 years of psychology as a science_. Also, Rudolf Arnheim published
a paper on common miscontruals of Gestalt-ism in psychology texts in an
issue of _American Psychologist_ in the mid 1980s.
Lewin's Topological psychology is a much harder nut to crack.
There is an exchange of articles between him and Tolman in the 1930s in
_Pscyh Review_, I think. Something about "Aristotelian" and "Galilean" views
of science. Very revealing.
>
There is also woman at Wesslyan university -- a specialist in history of
psych -- who has been writing some interesting material on societal
influences on scientific research programs, particularly with respect
to psychology. I can't recall her name, but you might be able to track
her down with this information.

If your library gets it, there an article on the origins of operationism
in _Theory and Psychology_ (1992) by me. You might find it interesting,
though the focus is on the influences of other science on psychology,
rather than on the influences of society at large.

Good luck!

--
Christopher D. Green                [e-mail]
Psychology Department               [e-mail]
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1