Spring 1996
PSY-3331: History Of Psychology II

Dr. Robert Kugelmann
Department of Psychology
University of Dallas
Irving, Texas

Introduction
We live in a psychological society. Every aspect of life is affected by the science and profession of psychology, yet little more than a century ago, psychology barely existed as a social entity. Only toward the end of the nineteenth century could one actually major in psychology, and then, only at a few universities. The term "psychotherapy" was newly minted in the 1880s, when Freud was first formulating psychoanalysis. Looking back further, to the sixteenth century, we discover that the very word "psychology" first appeared in the writings of a Reformation notable, Philip Melanchthon. Of course, psychology does not differ in its newness from many other studies: economics and other social sciences, the natural sciences, to name the most prominent, all have been fairly recent inventions. According to Michael Foucault's thesis, the modern human studies appeared somewhat later than the natural sciences; he argues that the human sciences emerged around 1800. These new forms of knowledge reflected the appearance of modern subjectivity and, according to Foucault, are productive of that subjectivity. Prior to that there existed other sciences, other types of knowledge, that are incommensurate with what exists now.
In this course, we will explore the appearance of science and profession of psychology. I intend for this exploration not to be done from the point of view of psychology, for that bias can lead to a self-serving reading of history, one that justifies or legitimizes the field. The perspective taken will be a critique that inquires into the meaning of this strange contemporary activity called psychology. To the extent that we can do this, we will be phenomenological by suspending our allegiances to psychology. The task is difficult, because we tend to define who we are by what we do and so are motivated to justify our field.
The leading questions for the course will be: what kind of self has created psychology? To serve what ends?

Outline

I. The phenomenological study of the history of psychology (reading: van Kaam)
II. The question of modernity: rupture, progress, decline? (reading: Sbert; suggested readings: Heidegger, Illich, Giddens)
III. Modernity as a framework for the appearance of modern subjectivity and psychology
A. Religion:
1. The Reformation and the turn to inwardness
2. Secularization
B. Nature:
1. The Rise of Science and Mechanization of the World (reading: Alvares)
2. Technological transformation of the life-world
C. Economics: Disembedded economy (readings: Weber; Robert; suggested reading: Polanyi)
D. Society: Industrialization, Capitalism, Secularization (suggested reading: Sennett)
IV. Discourses and practices of the self as foundational to the rise of psychology
A. The mind: empiricism, rationalism and materialism as the philosophical traditions most influential for psychology (readings: Spinoza, Locke, in Brennan)
B. The body: anatomy and physiology redefine the corporeal aspects of the self
C. Life: biology and theories of evolution shape our view of the nature of the self
V. The Appearance of Scientific Psychology
A. John Stuart Mill and psychology as an experimental science (Mill, in Brennan)
B. The distinctions between natural and human sciences
(Wundt, Brentano, in Brennan)
C. From the Old Psychology to the New (Titchener, in Brennan)
VI. William James and the New Psychology
A. Habit, Association (readings: James; Dewey, Pavlov, in Brennan)
B. Consciousness (readings: James; suggested reading: Schutz)
C. The self (readings: James; van den Berg (1971))
D. Conception and Attention (readings: James; Tolman, in
Brennan)
E. Perception (readings: James; Koffka, in Brennan)
F. Emotion (reading: James)
VII. The Status of Psychology (readings: James; Giorgi, in
Brennan; suggested: Koch; Vitz)
A. The rise and decline of behaviorism (reading: Watson, in Brennan; suggested reading: O'Donnell)
B. Cognitive psychology and the computer analogy
C. The third force and phenomenological psychology
VIII.The Rise of Therapeutic Psychology
A. Changing paradigms of madness (readings: Freud, in
Brennan; Jacobs)
IX. Conclusions: The future of psychology and the future of the self

Requirements
1. Paper examining one aspect of the history of twentieth century psychology.
2. Midterm and final exams.



Bibliography and Readings

Alvares, C. (1991). Science. In W. Sachs (ed.), The development dictionary (pp.219-32). London: Zed Books.

Brennan, J. (1994). Readings in the History and Systems of Psychology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Giddens, A. (1990). The consequences of modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Heidegger, M. (1979). The age of the world view (M. Grene, Trans.). In W.V. Spanos (Ed.), Martin Heidegger and the question of literature: Toward a postmodern literary hermeneutics (pp. 1-15). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (Original work published 1951)

Illich, I. (1982). Gender. New York: Vintage.

Jacobs, M. Depth psychology: A passing cultural phenomenon. Humanitas, 7, 371-394.

James, W. (1985). Psychology: The briefer course. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. (Original work published 1892)

O'Donnell, J. (1985). The origins of behaviorism: American psychology, 1870-1920. New York: NYU Press.

Polanyi, K. (1957). The great transformation. Boston: Beacon Press.

Robert, J. (1991). Production. In W. Sachs (ed.), The development dictionary (pp. 177-91). London: Zed Books.

Schutz, A. (1970). William James's concept of the stream of thought phenomenolgically interpreted. In J. Schutz (ed.), Collected papers, Vol. 3: Studies in phenomenological philosophy, pp. 1-14. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

Sbert, J. (1991). Progress. In W. Sachs (ed.), The development dictionary (pp. 192-205). London: Zed Books.

Sennett, R. (1977). The fall of public man. London: Faber & Faber.

van den Berg, J.H. (1971). Living in plurality. Humanitas, 7, 395-410.

van Kaam, A. (1969). Existential foundations of psychology. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Image Books, pp. 204-240.

Vitz, P. (1994) Psychology as religion: The cult of self-worship, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

Weber, M. (1946). Capitalism and rural society in Germany. In H.H. Gerth & C.W. Mills (Trans. & Eds.), From Max Weber: Essays in sociology (pp. 363-385). New York: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1906)