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Principles of Topological Psychology
2015 Reprint of 1936 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Topological psychology may be described non-technically as an attempt to comprehend human behavior in terms of the objects which are present, and of the relations among "events" taking place in a given environment ("life-span"). Lewin contends that it provides the basis for a truly scientific psychology. The Lewin's equation, B = ƒ(P, E), is a psychological equation of behavior developed by Kurt Lewin. It states that behavior is a function of the person in their environment. The equation is the psychologist's most well known formula in social psychology, of which Lewin was a modern pioneer. When first presented in Lewin's book "Principles of Topological Psychology," published in 1936, it contradicted most popular theories in that it gave importance to a person's momentary situation in understanding his or her behavior, rather than relying entirely on the past.
- GenresPsychologyNonfiction
250 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2007
About the author
Kurt Lewin
65 books46 followersA German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. Kurt Lewin, exiled from the land of his birth, made a new life for himself
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 30, 2016
When we use language that refers to "the core of a person", a "psychological barrier", personality dimensions such as "openness" or a "rigid belief structure", we're speaking in topological terms. In this sense, Topological Psychology has always existed in a primitive form as a tool we use to construct our theory of mind. We use such principles naturally when we attempt to describe psychological states, yet we are quick to look to specific psychological content in search of the rules governing behavior. Lewin seems to have taken a page from this topological instinct, and followed it through with an impressive expansion of the concept.
Most works of psychology that I've been exposed to attempt to describe behavior as a function dependent upon rules related to specific psychological content. This approach can be useful, but is prone to error and eventual obsolescence as the field progresses. Instead, Lewin has carved out an evergreen framework for thinking about psychology that's still relevant ~80 years later, even as theories related to psychological content are themselves revised or deprecated.
Lewin introduces the "Life Space" as the canvas of topological psychology, within which all experience and behavior takes place. This space is divided into that of the person (P) and environment (E), from which behavior (B = f(PE)) is always derived. He introduces the terms 'quasi-physical', 'quasi-conceptual', and 'quasi-social' to describe the concrete facts from which the psychological life space is described which, while they may differ from objective reality (hence 'quasi-'), are as good as real in terms of the psychological space and in the generation of behavior.
Aligning with the relational nature of the mathematical field of topology, Lewin introduces examples that demonstrate how a person's situation can be elegantly drawn in topological terms: Jordan curves; connected or disconnected regions; structured, unstructured, and infinitely structured regions; boundaries, walls, and border regions; friction, fluidity, and tension; differentiation; dimension; communication and connectedness; locomotion.
If you're looking for a book that will present a just-so theory of "if-then" rules with which to understand behavior, this is not your book. The content remains lofty and conceptual throughout, and concrete real-world examples are few. If, instead, you're looking for a framework of thought that can expand on those same intuitive tools from which you derive phrases like "we have a disconnect" or "I feel stuck", then this is your book.
Those interested in neuroscience may find some value here as well, as many of the topological concepts discussed within have uncanny parallels to the more-recently uncovered understandings of brain function and structure. It may be that the structure and interaction of our brain's various differentiated systems lends itself to topological description naturally. Notable examples include:
- Lewin's description of psyche development as further differentiation of pre-existing regions into sub-regions rather than addition of new regions ("The first responses to stimuli are undifferentiated reactions of the whole organism" -- prototype behaviors involving large parts of the organism are structured in advance of experience, to later be fine-tuned into detailed behaviors through partial inhibition of the original behavior)
- Description of the inner regions of the person being 'dedifferentiated' during increased tension (such as stress, which produces more coarse-grained, prototyped responses). It'd be interesting to explore this concept in terms of the effects of mood-altering monoamine neurotransmitters, stress hormones, or fear-induced PFC inhibition, for example.
- Divisions within the person are described as being less rigid during youth than in adulthood. This is akin to a neural network with an initially-high learning rate being decreased throughout training, as is common for the optimization of neural classifiers.
- Development of differentiated sub-regions in the topological life space may be directly analogous to neural network learning, as synaptic weights are strengthened or pruned to develop 'dynamic walls' between subpopulations of neurons, resulting in a physical differentiation of concepts, beliefs, motor control and perception within neural connections.
Lewin makes mention of Vector Psychology several times. I Googled it expecting to find a follow-up book that filled in the blanks left by these references, but only found an empty definition in Mirriam-Webster and some Russian website describing Freud's work of Vector-Systems psychology entitled "Character and anal eroticism." My search ended there.
Most works of psychology that I've been exposed to attempt to describe behavior as a function dependent upon rules related to specific psychological content. This approach can be useful, but is prone to error and eventual obsolescence as the field progresses. Instead, Lewin has carved out an evergreen framework for thinking about psychology that's still relevant ~80 years later, even as theories related to psychological content are themselves revised or deprecated.
Lewin introduces the "Life Space" as the canvas of topological psychology, within which all experience and behavior takes place. This space is divided into that of the person (P) and environment (E), from which behavior (B = f(PE)) is always derived. He introduces the terms 'quasi-physical', 'quasi-conceptual', and 'quasi-social' to describe the concrete facts from which the psychological life space is described which, while they may differ from objective reality (hence 'quasi-'), are as good as real in terms of the psychological space and in the generation of behavior.
Aligning with the relational nature of the mathematical field of topology, Lewin introduces examples that demonstrate how a person's situation can be elegantly drawn in topological terms: Jordan curves; connected or disconnected regions; structured, unstructured, and infinitely structured regions; boundaries, walls, and border regions; friction, fluidity, and tension; differentiation; dimension; communication and connectedness; locomotion.
If you're looking for a book that will present a just-so theory of "if-then" rules with which to understand behavior, this is not your book. The content remains lofty and conceptual throughout, and concrete real-world examples are few. If, instead, you're looking for a framework of thought that can expand on those same intuitive tools from which you derive phrases like "we have a disconnect" or "I feel stuck", then this is your book.
Those interested in neuroscience may find some value here as well, as many of the topological concepts discussed within have uncanny parallels to the more-recently uncovered understandings of brain function and structure. It may be that the structure and interaction of our brain's various differentiated systems lends itself to topological description naturally. Notable examples include:
- Lewin's description of psyche development as further differentiation of pre-existing regions into sub-regions rather than addition of new regions ("The first responses to stimuli are undifferentiated reactions of the whole organism" -- prototype behaviors involving large parts of the organism are structured in advance of experience, to later be fine-tuned into detailed behaviors through partial inhibition of the original behavior)
- Description of the inner regions of the person being 'dedifferentiated' during increased tension (such as stress, which produces more coarse-grained, prototyped responses). It'd be interesting to explore this concept in terms of the effects of mood-altering monoamine neurotransmitters, stress hormones, or fear-induced PFC inhibition, for example.
- Divisions within the person are described as being less rigid during youth than in adulthood. This is akin to a neural network with an initially-high learning rate being decreased throughout training, as is common for the optimization of neural classifiers.
- Development of differentiated sub-regions in the topological life space may be directly analogous to neural network learning, as synaptic weights are strengthened or pruned to develop 'dynamic walls' between subpopulations of neurons, resulting in a physical differentiation of concepts, beliefs, motor control and perception within neural connections.
Lewin makes mention of Vector Psychology several times. I Googled it expecting to find a follow-up book that filled in the blanks left by these references, but only found an empty definition in Mirriam-Webster and some Russian website describing Freud's work of Vector-Systems psychology entitled "Character and anal eroticism." My search ended there.
June 11, 2020
I can't say enough good about Dr. Kurt Lewin's (pronounced La-veen) first book that was translated into English. I found it by accident in 2004 when I was writing my dissertation proposal on cognitive dissonance in consumer behavior. I am excited to see that it is back in print. In my view, it is the most important read for researchers in the social sciences. However, it is seemingly too complex for some casual readers to comprehend; the reasons may lie in the fact that Lewin holds time constant yet describes multivariate constructs of the person within their everyday "lifespace." Dr. Fritz Heider, whom with his wife Grace translated this work from the original German, also takes a multivariate view with his Lens Model. Dr. Egon Brunswick took a similar approach except that he didn't hold time constant. Lewin's approach should be taught to all, especially his Jordan Curves as a way to understand what the sample may be experiencing about the hypothesis. The genius behind Lewin's modeling with Jordan Curves is that they depict the topology of the relationship: variables and primary mediators/moderators, yet are not intended to show the size, shape, or magnitude of the relationship. For more information about why Lewin's book is seminal and should be required reading, check out this free access to my entire dissertation on ProQuest Open Access:
https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/190...
https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/190...
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February 4, 2021On the surface, it would seem like math would have very little to do with psychology. However, when looking at Kurt Lewin’s work in Principles of Topological Psychology, it’s clear to see how mathematical models influenced his thinking on psychology and how to motivate people.
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September 10, 2017
Strikingly beautiful combination of highly abstract maths and psychology, but I found the book rather difficult to follow because of the language used and the overall structure.
April 22, 2016
Fascinating ideas on psychology, he's not just copying the superficial forms of mathematics and applying them blindly to psychology. He is instead working through the methods that are used to construct a very specific type of mathematics, topology, and using the same method to construct a comparable logical foundational structure for psychology. The concept of “Life Space” by itself is fascinating. It is a bold enterprise overall.
While he provides ample explanations for those who are unfamiliar with mathematical topology, I found that it still required reading a few articles on Wikipedia to provide elaboration on where he was going with some of his concepts.
Lewin keeps referring to Vector psychology, seems like this may have been a planned work, applying vector mathematics to psychology like he did topology. Like he was on the verge of a breakthrough, but not quite there.
The sober style makes for dry reading, but still well worth it though.
While he provides ample explanations for those who are unfamiliar with mathematical topology, I found that it still required reading a few articles on Wikipedia to provide elaboration on where he was going with some of his concepts.
Lewin keeps referring to Vector psychology, seems like this may have been a planned work, applying vector mathematics to psychology like he did topology. Like he was on the verge of a breakthrough, but not quite there.
The sober style makes for dry reading, but still well worth it though.
July 31, 2016
The concept of life space is discussed in this book along with related concepts. It is unfair to evaluate it by current scientific standards. Overall, an arid but interesting reading.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews