Odd to think there is a single answer to the question posted in #1,
Andy. Seems like this is some version of the discussion of paradigms
and paradigm shifts with a "leading" element tossed in.
mike
On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 7:33 PM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net
<mailto:ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:
I have just started re-reading Vygotsky's "Historical Crisis" from
the beginning, for the first time for many years (I have looked a
cetain "hot" topics, but not read it from the beginning for
years). There is a pair of insights which he offers which I'd like
to remind people of.
(1) He says that at different stages in the history of psychology,
one or another branch of psychology plays the "leading role."
First the psychology of the normal adult person, then pathology
and then the psychology of the unconscious. He asks: "Which
discipline should lead, unify, and elaborate the basic concepts,
principles, and methods, verify and systematise the data of all
other areas?
He then goes on to consider the same problem in a slightly
different way: "What makes the most diverse phenomena into
psychological facts - from the salivation in a dog to the
enjoyment of a tragedy, what do the ravings of a madman and the
rigorous computations of the mathematician share?" In other words,
what is the concept of psychology and its subject matter? He then
goes on to look at three competing answers, based on reflections
of the proposed leading roles to be given to subjective
psychology, animal psychology or psychoanalysis: "For general
psychology the three answers mean, respectively that it is a
science of (1) the mental and its properties, or (2) behaviour; or
(3) the unconscious." This leads very directly to a consideration
of the concept of psychology in terms of a unit of analysis.
Could we give an answer to the question as to which branch of
general psychology plays the "leading role" today, in these very
historical/objective terms?
Andy
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