Putting Psychology in its Place: Critical Historical Perspectives

by Graham Richards

The third edition of Putting Psychology In Its Place builds on the previous two editions, introducing the history of Psychology and placing the discipline within a historical context. It aims both to answer and raise questions about the role of Psychology in modern society, by critically examining issues such as how Psychology developed, why psychoanalysis had such an impact and how the discipline has changed to deal with contemporary social issues such as religion, race and gender. This new third edition contains two completely new chapters: "Emotion: The Problem or the Whole Point?" and "Funding and Institutional Factors." An expanded epilogue has also been added which incorporates a discussion of the conceptual issues raised in the book and the volume now corresponds with the new BPS requirements for undergraduate courses. Other chapters, including those on Psychology and the Brain, Social Psychology and the Psychology of Madness, as well as those on gender, religion and race, have been substantially revised. Putting Psychology In Its Place is imaginatively written and accessible to all. It is an invaluable introductory text for undergraduate students of the history of Psychology and will also appeal to postgraduates, academics and anyone interested in Psychology or the history of science.

Genres: Psychology

448 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 1996

About the author

Graham Richards is now retired from full-time academic work but is associated with the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, University College London. Graham does research in Social and Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Social Psychology. London. He is not currently active engaged in research. His past work has mainly been in the field of History of Psychology and to a lesser extent Human Evolution and Philosophical Psychology. His history work has addressed, in particular, race/racism and religion in relation to Psychology as well as British psychology and more general works.

Reviews

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for my "Historical and Critical Perspectives of Psychology" course. There were a lot of very interesting ideas and concepts in this book, but it was so dense and difficult to follow that it lost any hope of being enjoyable. Luckily, my class had supplementary readings to go along with the book, or else I would have had no idea what was going on half the time.

[Joel Cuthbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a textbook for a class quite lovingly titled "Historical and Critical Perspectives on Psychology". Normally, I'd say fortunately, but in this case, unfortunately, we were only given a number of readings from it, so I did not get to read the entire thing. I will say this was a particularly enlightening and quite profound read, despite its textbook structure. I might eventually revisit it beyond its assignment and find more to connect and disconnect with my own ongoing reconciling with Psychology as a field of study. Here I sincerely appreciate the author's commitment to a humility of knowledge, they often admit where their own perspectives fall short, or where further study and reflection might be beneficial.

It's safe to say, though, that psychology is a strange science, one which boasts such theories and iconic thinkers in the field that one might assume it really holds that firm grip on knowledge that it so often claims to. The reality is that Psychology's history is riddled with some terrible abuse, bias, sexism and homophobia. The fact that modern psychology and therapy were borne out of military motives alone should be enough to place it on the shakiest of grounds.

Still, even more problematic is how it has evolved away from religious and philosophical roots, where abstract (though decidedly complicated implications) allowed it to grow a bit too loosely. Now, under the cold and watchful gaze of science's measure and meaning, it grows a bit antiseptic and even ineffective.

I love to live somewhere in between, constantly weighing the damage of progress, all the while anticipating how our own pioneers will be proven problematic as the cultural lens continues to focus.

Nevertheless, this was a dense, thoughtful and thorough investigation of where Psychology has come from, and what might be best to consider as it moves into its next stage of evolution.