Historiography of psychology in Brazil: Pioneer works, recent developments.

The evolution of the historiography of psychology in Brazil is surveyed, to describe how the field has evolved from the seminal works of the pioneer, mostly self-taught, psychologists, to the now professional historians working from a variety of theoretical models and methods of inquiry. The first accounts of the history of psychology written by Brazilians and by foreigners are surveyed, as well as the recent works made by researchers linked to the Work Group on the History of Psychology of the Brazilian Association of Research and Graduate Education in Psychology and published in periodicals such as Memorandum and Mnemosine. The present historiography focuses mainly the relationship of psychological knowledge to specific social and cultural conditions, emphasizing themes such as women's participation in the construction of the field, the development of psychology as a science and as a profession in education and health, and the development of psychology as an expression of Brazilian culture and of the experience of resistance of local communities to domination. To reveal this process of identity construction, a cultural historiography is an important tool, coupled with methodological pluralism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Making the history of psychology clinically and philosophically relevant.

The author discusses ways to make the history of psychology course relevant for a clinical psychology doctoral program within a multidenominational Protestant theological seminary. She uses a personalist orientation to emphasize the need to integrate psychology, philosophy, and theology. She differentiates among the intrapersonal, interpersonal, impersonal, and transpersonal dimensions of experience. She illustrates the rich multidisciplinary historical roots of contemporary psychology by tracing the history of the term psychology and examining its meanings in the existential psychology of S?ren Kierkegaard and in the 19th-century novel. She includes brief histories of the "new psychology" and of the unconscious. She describes how she uses the field of psychotheological integration to illustrate principles of historiography and summarizes resources used to supplement traditional textbooks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Remembering Joseph Brozek (1913-2004): Brozek's China connection.

In the pages of a recent issue of this journal, several historians of psychology wrote of their acquaintance with the late Professor Joseph Brozek, the naturalized American polymath born in central Bohemia (today known as the Czech Republic) who worked nearly all of his adult life in the Universities of Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Lehigh and championed the cause of international collaborations for the furtherance of studies in the history of psychology (Woodward et al., 2004). Apart from a brief biography, these historians mentioned his numerous investigations into the work of several Czech scientists who worked in psychology or related fields and who were either unknown or neglected in the West; they also discussed his numerous book chapters and reviews, some of which were in his specialty field, nutrition. But Brozek is most remembered for his desire to link up people in different parts of the world who had a common interest in the history of psychology. Although several of the contributors addressed this feature of his work, there was no mention of his attempts to bring Chinese psychologists into the international arena. What follows is the author's attempt to redress this omission. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Josef Maria Brozek (1913-2004).

Presents the obituary for Josef Maria Brozek (1913-2004). Dr. Brozek is known in part for his study of the effects of nutrition on behavior. He taught primarily in the history of psychology and his long term project in this area was the historiography of psychology in the world. His unique and important contribution to the field was the organization of a six-week Summer Institute on the History of Psychology for College Teachers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Josef Bro?ek: Friendship and History.

Presents reflections on the life and achievements of Josef Maria Bro?ek. The author notes that, in his way, Bro?ek turned psychology historiography into an international domain involving, in this construction, researchers from countries not only of Anglo Saxon languages but also those of Slavic and Latin languages, including Brazil. Quoting from Braque, he affirmed that "knowledge of the past enables the revelation of the present." However, he believed that "reality is not revealed if it is not sparkled by a poetic beam." The poetry of life illuminated Bro?ek and his actions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology at Windsor.

The development of academic psychology at the University of Windsor is traced through four stages: (1) psychology within the realm of philosophy (1857-1943), (2) the beginning of modern psychology (1944-1955), (3) psychology comes of age (1956-1962), and (4) the growth of branches (1963- ). It is observed that this growth of psychology parallels the growth of the institution from a Roman Catholic junior college to a provincial university. Implications for the history of psychology in Canada as well as other countries are also considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflections on the main schools of the world psychology in the Czech interwar psychology.

The author deals with the reasons for the different level of acceptance of the three important psychological perspectives (Gestalt psychology, behaviorism, and psychoanalysis) in the Czech interwar psychology. Gestalt psychology was probably the most accepted approach, which was at least partly caused by its founding in the neighboring Germany. It was an academic perspective that was convenient for the professional ambitions of its representatives as well as for their endeavor to establish psychology as a serious scientific discipline. On the contrary, the acceptance of behaviorism was rather negative or indifferent. Czech psychologists perceived it as a predominantly foreign, extraneous school of thinking. They preferred the studies on consciousness and the method of introspection over empirical research. Psychoanalysis also has never taken deeper roots in Czechoslovakia. Some Czech intellectuals accepted the existence of unconsciousness but they criticized Freudian sexual symbolism (Peroutka, ?apek). Negative attitudes of the politicians Masaryk and Bene? also contributed to the cool reception of this school. With sporadic exceptions, the psychoanalytic thinking was developed only in a small Jewish-German-Czech circle. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology at St. Thomas University.

The history of psychology at St. Thomas University can be viewed in two distinct phases which co-incide with the period from its foundation in 1910 until 1964 when it moved to a new campus in Fredericton. The first phase saw psychology as a branch of philosophy. The second phase, commencing in 1965 has manifested rapid development of the psychology department which seems to indicate the continued interest in psychology by students of the small liberal arts school in Canada. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A History of Western Psychology.

Reviews the book, A History of Western Psychology by David J. Murray (1982). In two respects this is a highly traditional book. First of all, the parts of the subject that are singled out for serious consideration are the most venerable core areas of experimental psychology--above all, sensation, and to a slightly lesser extent, memory and other aspects of cognition. Social psychology gets less than 1% of the total space and such areas as developmental, applied and personality psychology are hardly glanced at. There is however a whole chapter on psychoanalysis. A second traditional feature of the book is expressed in its commitment to the view that the history of psychology is to be treated purely as intellectual history. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ten years of Italian historiography of psychology: A field in progress.

This article briefly outlines a picture of the activities and research conducted in Italy on the history of psychology during the last 10 years, focusing its attention on institutions, scholars, conferences, archives, journals, and so forth. At the dawn of the 21st century, the tradition of historical-psychological studies that developed in the last quarter of the 20th century has led to a renewed situation in teaching organization and research, with the emergence of several groups, especially at the universities of Rome “Sapienza,” Bari, Milan-Bicocca, and Urbino, and of a second generation of young historians increasingly engaged on an international level. After a general survey conducted with historiometric method on the principal areas of research cultivated and on the themes dealt with, we mention a change that has occurred in the historiographical approach, a transition from a historiography addressed prevalently to the “history of ideas” to one that, pursuing the approach of a new and critical “multifactorial” history, proves to be more attentive to the social and institutional history, in correspondence with established international trends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Historical understanding and teaching in professional psychology.

The teaching of the history of psychology in professional psychology training programs presents to students and teachers any number of opportunities and challenges. The increasing number of professional psychologists teaching the history of psychology coupled with advances in historical scholarship point to an ongoing evolution in the teaching of the history of psychology. In this introduction to the articles that follow, issues of content and context in teaching the history of psychology in professional psychology are discussed and affirmations offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Historically grounding the practice of psychology: Implications for professional training.

The author explores 3 ways the history of psychology can be made relevant to professional training in clinical psychology. Focusing on the practitioner-scholar model of clinical professional training, he argues that 3 central facets of historical understanding can be wedded to existing goals of professional training: (a) providing an interdisciplinary context for psychology, (b) addressing concerns about humans in the field, and (c) mediating theory-practice tensions that often exist in professional training. Suggestions are also made for encouraging historical understanding as essential to fostering critical self-reflection among students preparing for careers in professional psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopharmacology's debt to experimental psychology.

The role of experimental psychology in the development of psychopharmacology has largely been ignored in recent historical accounts. In this article the authors attempt to redress that gap by outlining work in early experimental psychology that contributed significantly to the field. While psychiatrists focused on the therapeutic nature of drugs or their mimicry of psychopathology, experimental psychologists used psychoactive drugs as tools to study individual differences in normal behavior as well as to develop methodologies using behavior to study mechanisms of drug action. Experimental work by Kraepelin, Rivers, and Hollingworth was particularly important in establishing drug-screening protocols still used today. Research on nitrous oxide and on the effects of drug combinations is discussed to illustrate the importance of experimental psychology to psychopharmacology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A history of modern experimental psychology: From James and Wundt to cognitive science.

Reviews the book, A history of modern experimental psychology: From James and Wundt to cognitive science by George Mandler (see record 2007-05052-000). George Mandler, a longtime researcher in the area of memory and cognition, has gathered together his notes and selected bits from previous publications to assemble a new book cast as a brief history of the emergence of cognitive psychology. Mandler draws us to the positive impact Behaviourism had on the development of Cognitive Psychology. Mandler's book stands as an outline of the past, not a history. Its value rests with the perspective that comes from someone who has been thinking, researching and writing about topics central to Cognitive Psychology for over 40 years. He has been a witness to change, someone who has even participated in them, so his insights are valuable and directive. I would have enjoyed Mandler's book to a greater extent if, rather than chronologically reporting events, he had attempted to provide a gestalt of the emergence of cognitive psychology, one that would have located the articulate in the inarticulate of research practise and concept development in societies caught in the rift of redefinition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sixty years of psychology at the University of Alberta.

The history of six decades of psychology at the University of Alberta is presented by concentrating on the six individuals who have served as department heads since 1909, all of whom are still living. During this period, the department has progressed from a modest offering of one course in psychology to a program that includes both pre- and post-doctoral study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychological Thought from Pythagoras to Freud: An Informal Introduction.

Reviews the book, Psychological Thought from Pythagoras to Freud: An Informal Introduction by Gardner Murphy (1968). Those individuals who look on Gardner Murphy as one of the (alas) few really literate psychologists of the twentieth century will have their admiration of him reinforced by this volume of essays. They were originally presented as a series of lectures at the Menninger School of Psychiatry in 1966-67. One of them, on "The Mathematical View of Life and Mind: Pythagoras", has already been published in the American Psychologist while another, "Evolution: Charles Darwin", has appeared in the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. Whether the topic is the place (and misplace) of quantification in psychology, materialist and functionalist views of psychology, the role of divine grace in the evolution of the concept of the will, nationalistic differences in the handling of common psychological problems, psychology's post evolutionary theory concerns, the stream of William James' thought, Gestalt psychology or Freudian psychoanalysis, Murphy remains erudite, informative and, occasionally, provocative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The historiography of psychology of Italy.

The article outlines the studies conducted in Italy on the history of psychology since the 1970s, with particular attention to those elaborated in the 1990s. Reference is made to the institutions, authors, congresses, and other initiatives that in the course of 3 decades have promoted the growth of the history of psychology, and a review is presented of the principal research themes undertaken by scholars. An attempt has been made to identify the principal historiographic tendencies and to illustrate the passage from a sort of "positivistic" historiography to an orientation that could be considered multi-factorial or one of complexity, attentive to both the internal and the external components of the scientific enterprise, although with a propensity for the history of ideas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School psychology: A specialty of professional psychology with distinct competencies and complexities.

School psychology at the doctoral level is recognized as a specialty of professional psychology by the American Psychological Association, with corresponding licensure as a psychologist granted by state boards of psychology. School psychology also is regulated by state boards of education; they set the credentialing standards for professional practice in public schools. The intent of this article is to enhance the understanding of this distinct and multiply influenced specialty. The need for psychological services in schools is highlighted, followed by a discussion of multiple influences and licensing/credentialing issues. Next, the specialty is delineated, its distinctiveness highlighted, and competencies for practice in the public schools elaborated. Finally, education/training models and mechanisms for program accreditation are described, as are the major professional organizations in school psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of A Dialectical Psychology.

Reviews the book, A Dialectical Psychology by Allan R. Buss (1979). This collection of papers, most of them previously published, covers topics as diverse as attribution theory, life-span development, humanistic psychology, history of differential psychology, interactionism, the relations of fact and theory and of individual and society, and the future of psychology in general. Those who seek in this book a dialectical psychology will find it neither explained nor exemplified. While interesting connections are drawn from time to time between psychological theory and the social-historical context, it is not clear what is so "critical" about the way in which they are drawn, nor does one ever attain the feeling of having been led very far beyond "mere surface appearance." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Alison Turtle (1939-2006).

Presents an obituary for Alison Turtle, the first scholar to write detailed historiographies of Australian psychology. Ms. Turtle was always interested in the socio-cultural context of psychology, recognizing that neither psychology specifically nor science generally are conducted in a cultural vacuum, hence her studies in cross-cultural psychology. She was a good feminist, a defender of animal rights, and an activist in the local academic union. As a unionist, she had particular concerns with superannuation questions and with women's rights and conditions of employment. Ms. Turtle died from the effects of cancer in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on April 26, 2006. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)