Understanding the Impact of Locke, Shaftesbury and Reid
`Billig's is a fascinating work of brilliant scholarship. It is written in an elegant style, spiced with humour, and gives one the feeling that it was a labour of love. It can be recommended without reservation' - Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology `This is a quite extraordinary and original book. Billig has managed seamlessly to interweave History of Philosophy, History of Psychology, Critical Psychology and a deep grasp of the social nature of language and, moreover, do so in a very readable fashion' - Graham Richards, Formerly Professor of History of Psychology, Staffordshire University and Director of the British Psychological Society History of Psychology Centre, London `I can't quite capture how much I enjoyed this book. In beautiful, witty prose and through exemplary scholarship, Billig has produced an historical work that engages with profoundly important ideas not just for contemporary critical psychology but for psychology in general. Books as good as this are rare' - Alan Collins, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Lancaster University Today new forms of critical psychology are challenging the cognitive revolution that has dominated psychology for the past three decades. This book explores the historical roots of these new psychologies. It demonstrates that their ideas are not quite as new as is often supposed. In the early modern period, thinkers like the Earl of Shaftesbury and Thomas Reid reacted against Locke's cognitive psychology in ways that were surprisingly modern, if not post-modern. However, until now, they have been virtually written out of psychology's history. It is now time to recognize the great originality of their psychological thinking. Writing in a non-technical style, Michael Billig seeks to overturn the dominant views of psychology's history. In so doing, he gives a fascinating account of the times, bringing psychology's hidden past vividly back to life.
Assessing the problems and potentials facing African Americans, this book argues that in order for achieving individuals to advance to the final step of freedom, they must break free from the mental shackles created by the black community.
Recent debate has increasingly focused on the prominence of metaphor and rhetoric in psychological discourse. Underpinning this research is the view that psychology offers a unique insight into the creation of persuasive texts and that such a discipline needs to become itself an object of inquiry. In developing this view "Psychology as Metaphor" scrutinizes a wide range of traditional psychological theory including neuropsychology and memory, childhood development, the IQ debate, accounts of emotion, and psychological descriptions of the mind, to show how rhetorical strategies and the deployment of metaphor are central to the work of creating a convincing theoretical account. This book explores the distinction between philosophy and rhetoric, and offers an interdisciplinary analysis of theories of metaphor and language while pointing to future directions for research in the study of scientific rhetoric. Its theoretical breadth is matched by the book's wide-ranging treatment of key thinkers from Darwin, James and Freud, through Watson, Lashley, Piaget, Vygotsky, Skinner and Burt to recent texts from writers in contemporary psychology such as Kamin, Eysenck, Rumelhart and Shallice. This book should be useful reading for psychologists, historians and sociologists of science, philosophers of the social sciences and anyone with an interest in how the study of rhetoric can shed light on the creation of persuasive psychological theory.
Understanding the Impact of Locke, Shaftesbury and Reid
`Billig's is a fascinating work of brilliant scholarship. It is written in an elegant style, spiced with humour, and gives one the feeling that it was a labour of love. It can be recommended without reservation' - Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology `This is a quite extraordinary and original book. Billig has managed seamlessly to interweave History of Philosophy, History of Psychology, Critical Psychology and a deep grasp of the social nature of language and, moreover, do so in a very readable fashion' - Graham Richards, Formerly Professor of History of Psychology, Staffordshire University and Director of the British Psychological Society History of Psychology Centre, London `I can't quite capture how much I enjoyed this book. In beautiful, witty prose and through exemplary scholarship, Billig has produced an historical work that engages with profoundly important ideas not just for contemporary critical psychology but for psychology in general. Books as good as this are rare' - Alan Collins, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Lancaster University Today new forms of critical psychology are challenging the cognitive revolution that has dominated psychology for the past three decades. This book explores the historical roots of these new psychologies. It demonstrates that their ideas are not quite as new as is often supposed. In the early modern period, thinkers like the Earl of Shaftesbury and Thomas Reid reacted against Locke's cognitive psychology in ways that were surprisingly modern, if not post-modern. However, until now, they have been virtually written out of psychology's history. It is now time to recognize the great originality of their psychological thinking. Writing in a non-technical style, Michael Billig seeks to overturn the dominant views of psychology's history. In so doing, he gives a fascinating account of the times, bringing psychology's hidden past vividly back to life.
In this work, the author explains how modern psychology found its language by examining the historically changing structure of psychological discourse; offering an analysis of the recent evolution of the concepts and categories on which the quality of psychological discourse depends; exploring the process by which basic terms and concepts such as intelligence, motivation, learning, stimulation, behaviour and attitude have taken on their current meaning; and providing a history of the discipline of psychology.
Illustrates the parallels between anxiety in the individual and discord in civilisation. This book argues that the resistance to face hidden motives is what lies at the core of political and religious strife and individual anxiety. It also describes the meaning of anxiety, explains how the pathology arises, and how it can be relieved.
Presents an examination of psychology's underlying principles, assumptions, and concepts. This title explores the following key issues: what do we mean by 'science' and can psychology be legitimately described as a science; what are the general principles that should be applied to any science; and, what is the role of mathematics in psychology.
The Search for Truth and Agency in Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology
Presents an argument that any philosophy of psychology that in principle precludes the possibility of objective psychological knowledge and truth also undermines an agency founded on rational interpretive grounds. This work offers a critique concerning psychology's fragmentation mount and attempts at unification proliferate.
George Kelly's personal construct theory, first published in 1955, is as radical today as it was then. Describing how each one of us goes about our daily life trying to make sense of the events around us, it maintains that we are in charge of what we do in the world, that we do not merely react to events. This book reveals that George Kelly was a man of enormous intellect, of many talents and of great complexity. Fay Fransella outlines how his views have influenced the theory and practice of psychotherapy, and illustrates how his training in physics and mathematics influenced his theory and led to the development of one of his methods of measurement - the repertory grid. The book also describes Kelly's philosophy of constructive alternativism, which suggests that we have created and can therefore recreate ourselves, and that what is true for the individual, rather than some external truth, is what matters. This philosophy can be seen as a precursor of the current emphasis on constructivism. Criticisms of Kelly's work and examples of work carried out within this framework since his death are also featured.
