Reflecting on psychology through a double lens: The Psychological Humanities as an integrated approach
Abstract
Abstract: In this paper, we argue that the recent debates and proclaimed crises in psychology are partly due to a reflection deficit and the reductionist understanding of psychology as exclusively a science. For this reason, we introduce Psychological Humanities as a novel interdisciplinary approach that defines psychology as its object of investigation and opens a field of reflection. Although the study of psychological topics with an orientation toward the humanities is not new, either within or outside of psychology, we argue for the introduction of the collective term Psychological Humanities for four reasons: (1) the definition of Psychological Humanities does more justice to central psychological subject areas such as subjectivity, (2) it serves as a common term of interconnectedness and visibility, (3) it resonates with new reflective fields in related disciplines, such as the medical humanities, and (4) it is more consistent with intersubjective practice in applied psychology. In what follows, we present our approach to Psychological Humanities, developed at the University of Lübeck. Our model differentiates between two fundamental views: a view from the outside on the discipline of psychology and its contexts (e.g., through history, cultural studies, and ethics) and a view from the inside on psychology (e.g., through theoretical psychology, critical psychologies, or epistemology of psychology).
Keywords: Interdisciplinary Research; Subjectivity; Epistemology of Psychology; Applied Psychology; Psychological Humanities
Guardare la psicologia attraverso una doppia lente: le Psychological Humanities come approccio integrato
Riassunto: In questo articolo sosterremo che le discussioni recenti e le crisi proclamate in psicologia sono dovuti in parte a un deficit di riflessione e a una comprensione riduttiva della psicologia come disciplina esclusivamente scientifica. Per questo motivo presentiamo le Psychological Humanities come nuovo approccio interdisciplinare che ha la psicologia come proprio oggetto di indagine e apre un campo d’indagine. Sebbene lo studio di argomenti psicologici con un orientamento verso le discipline umanistiche non sia nuovo, né all’interno né all’esterno della psicologia, sosterremo l’introduzione del termine collettivo Psychological Humanities per quattro motivi: (1) la definizione di Psychological Humanities rende maggiormente giustizia ad aree tematiche psicologiche centrali come la soggettività, (2) funge da termine comune di interconnessione e visibilità, (3) richiama altri ambiti di riflessione in discipline affini quali le medical humanities ed (4) è più coerente con la pratica intersoggettiva in psicologia applicata. Nel lavoro che segue presenteremo l'approccio alle Psychological Humanieties che abbiamo sviluppato presso l’Università di Lubecca. Il nostro modello differenzia tra due prospettive fondamentali: uno sguardo esterno alla psicologia come disciplina e ai suoi contesti (per esempio attraverso la storia, gli studi culturali e l’etica) e uno sguardo interno alla psicologia (per esempio attraverso la psicologia teoretica, le psicologie critiche o l’epistemologia della psicologia).
Parole chiave: Ricerca interdisciplinare; Soggettività; Epistemologia della psicologia; Psicologia applicata; Psychological Humanities
Parole chiave
Full Text
PDFRiferimenti bibliografici
AALBERS, D. & TEO, T. (2017). The American Psychological Association and the torture complex: A phenomenology of the banality and workings of bureaucracy. In: «Journal of Psychology», vol. XXV, n. 1, pp. 179-204.
ALEXANDROVA, A., HAYBRON, D. M. (2016). Is construct validation valid?. In: «Philosophy of Science», vol. LXXXV, n. 5, pp. 1098-1109.
AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: Fifth edition (DSM-5). American Psychiatric Association, Washington (DC).
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. https://www.apa.org/ethics/code
ASH, M.G. & STURM, T. (eds.). (2006). Psychology’s territories: Historical and contemporary perspectives from different disciplines, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale.
ASH, M. & GEUTER, U. (Hrsg.) (1985). Geschichte der deutschen Psychologie im 20. Jahrhundert, Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen.
BÉNYEI, T. & STARA, A. (eds.) (2014). The edges of trauma: Explorations in visual art and literature, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge.
BOD, R., KURSELL, J., MAAT, J., & WESTSTEIJN, T. (2016). A new field: History of humanities. In: «History of Humanities», vol. I, n. 1, pp. 1-8.
BOD, R. (2016). A new history of the humanities: The search for principles and patterns from antiquity to the present. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
BOD, R., MAAT, J., WESTSTEIJN, T. (2014). Introduction: The making of the modern humanities. In: R. BOD, J. MAAT, T. WESTSTEIJN (eds.), The making of the humanities, Volume III: The modern humanities, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, pp. 13-24.
BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY (2021). Code of Ethics and Conduct – doi: 10.53841/bpsrep.2021.inf94.
BROCKMEIER, J. (2015). Beyond the archive: Memory, narrative, and the autobiographical process, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
BROCK, A. (1994). Whatever happened to Karl Bühler?. In: «Canadian Psychology», vol. XXXV, n. 3, pp. 319-329.
BROWN, L. (2004). Feminist paradigms of trauma treatment. In: «Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training», vol. XLI, n. 4, pp. 464-471.
BRUNNER, J. (2014). Die Politik des Traumas. Gewalterfahrungen und psychisches Leid in den USA, in Deutschland und im Israel/Palästina-Konflikt, Suhr-kamp, Frankfurt a.M.
BURMAN, J.T. (2018). What is history of psychology? Network analysis of journal citation reports, 2009-2015. In: «SAGE Open», vol. VIII, n. 1, pp. 1-17 – doi: 10.1177/2158244018763005.
BUTLER, J. (1997). The psychic life of power: Theories in subjection, Stanford University Press, Cambridge (MA).
CALLARD, F. (2022). Replication and reproduction: Crises in psychology and academic labour. In: «Review of General Psychology», vol. XXVI, n. 2, pp. 199-211.
CAPSHEW, J.H. (1999). Psychologists on the march: Science, practice, and professional identity in America, 1929-1969, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
CARSON, J. (2007). The measure of merit: Talents, intelligence, and inequality in the French and American republics, 1750-1940, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
CARUSO, P. (1999). Who are you, Professor Foucault?. In: J.R. CARRETTE (ed.), Michael Foucault. Religion and culture. Selected and edited by Jeremy R. Carrette, Routledge, London/New York, pp. 87-103 (First edition 1967).
CASPI, A., MCCLAY, J., MOFFITT, T., MILL, J., MARTIN, J., CRAIG, I. (2002). Role of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children. In: «Science», vol. CCXCVII, n. , pp. 851-854.
CLARKE, V., PEEL, E. (eds.) (2007). Out in psychology: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer perspectives, Wiley, London.
COLE, T.R., CARLIN, N.S., CARSON, R.A. (2015). Medical humanities: An introduction, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
CRAWFORD, P., BROWN, B., BAKER, C., TISCHLER, V., ABRAMS, B. (2015). Health Humanities. In: P. CRAWFORD, B. BROWN, C. BAKER, V. TISCHLER, B. ABRAMS (eds.), Health humanities, Palgrave, New York, pp. 1-19.
DANZIGER, K. (1985). The methodological imperative in psychology. In: «Philosophy of the Social Sciences», vol. XV, n. 1, pp. 1-13.
DANZIGER, K., DZINAS, K. (1997). How psychology got its variables. In: «Canadian Psychology», vol. XXXVIII, n. 1, pp. 43-48.
DGPS & BDP. (2016). Berufsethische Richtlinien des Berufsverbandes Deutscher Psychologinnen und Psychologen e.V. und der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychologie e.V., zugleich Berufsordnung des Berufsverbandes deutscher Psychologinnen und Psychologen e.V., https://www.dgps.de/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF/berufsethik-foederation-2016.pdf
EAGLY, A.H., RIGER, S. (2014). Feminism and psychology: Critiques of methods and epistemology. In: «American Psychologist», vol. LXIX, n. 7, pp. 685-702.
ELKINS, D.N. (2016). The American Psychological Association and the Hoffman report. In: «Journal of Humanistic Psychology», vol. LVI, n. 2, pp. 99-109.
FEEST, U. (2019). Why replication is overrated. In: «Philosophy of Science», vol. LXXXVI, n. 5, pp. 895-905.
FEEST, U. (ed.) (2010). Historical perspectives on Erklären and Verstehen, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg.
FLIS, I. (2019). Psychologists psychologizing scientific psychology: An epistemological reading of the replication crisis. In: «Theory & Psychology», vol. XXIX, n. 2, pp. 158-181.
FLIS, I., VAN ECK, N.J. (2018). Framing psychology as a discipline (1950-1999): A large-scale term co-occurrence analysis of scientific literature in psychology. In: «History of Psychology», vol. XXI, n. 4, pp. 334-362.
FLUEHR-LOBBAN, C. (2006). Race, intelligence, and mental testing. In: C. FLUEHR-LOBBAN, Race and racism: An introduction, Altamira Press, Lanham, pp. 137-167.
FOUCAULT, M. (1996). What is critique?. In: J. SCHMIDT (ed.), What is Enlightenment? Eighteenth-century answers and twentieth-century questions, University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles, pp. 382-398.
GERGEN, K. (1973). Social psychology as history. In: «Journal of Personality and Social Psychology», vol. XXVI, n. 2, pp. 309-320.
GREENWOOD, J.D. (2015). A conceptual history of psychology: Exploring the tangled web, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
GREENWOOD, J.D. (2017). The long and winding road: 125 years of the American Psychological Association. In: «Behavioral Scientist». Retrieved from https://behavioralscientist.org/long-winding-road-125-years-american-psychological-association/
HACKING, I. (1995a). The looping effects of human kinds. In: D. SPERBER, D. PREMACK, A.J. PEMACK (eds.), Causal cognition: A multidisciplinary debate, Clar-endon Press, London, pp. 351-382.
HACKING, I. (1995b). Trauma. In: I. HACKING, Rewriting the soul: Multiple personality and the sciences of memory, Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp. 183-197.
HOFFMAN, D.H., CARTER, D.J., LOPEZ, C.R.V., BENZMILLER, H.L., GUO, A.X., LATIFI, S.Y. & CRAIG, D.C. (2015). Report to the special committee of the board of directors of the American Psychological Association: Independent review relating to the APA ethics guidelines, national security interrogations, and torture, Chicago (ILL) – https://www.apa.org/independent-review/APA-FINAL-Report-7.2.15.pdf.
HOLZKAMP, K. (1992). On doing psychology critically. In: «Theory & Psychology», vol. II, n. 2, pp. 193-204.
HOLZKAMP, K. (1983). Grundlegung der Psychologie, Campus, Frankfurt a.M.
HOMMEL, B. (2022). Dealing with diversity in psychology: Science or ideology?. In: «PsyArXiv Preprints» - doi: 10.31234/osf.io/hvgrm.
HUTMACHER, F., FRANZ, D. J. (2024). Approaching psychology’s current crises by exploring the vagueness of psychological concepts: Recommendations for advancing the discipline. In: «American Psychologist» - doi: 10.1037/amp0001300.
KOCH, U. (2013). Shock of the real versus shocking realities: Critical theory and the normalisation of trauma. In: J.A. LAVRIJSEN, M. VICK (eds.), Is this a culture of trauma? An interdisciplinary perspective, Brill, Leiden, pp. 267-276.
KUKLA, A. (2001). Methods of theoretical psychology, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA).
LAYS, R. (2000). Trauma: A genealogy, University of Chi-cago Press, Chicago.
MAERCKER, A., GIESEKE, J. (eds.) (2021). Psychologie als Instrument der SED-Diktatur. Theorien – Praktiken – Akteure – Opfer, Hogrefe, Göttingen.
MAERCKER, A., HEIM, E., KIRMAYER, L.J. (eds.) (2019). Cultural clinical psychology and PTSD, Hogrefe, Göttingen.
MALICH, L., REHMANN-SUTTER, C. (2022). Metascience is not enough – a plea for psychological humanities in the wake of the replication crisis. In: «Review of General Psychology», vol. XXVI, n. 2, pp. 261-273.
MALICH, L., KELLER, D. (2018). Psychological humanities are not medical humanities – impressions from the Luebeck approach. American Psychological Association (APA) Annual Convention, San Francisco (USA).
MALICH, L., KELLER, D. (2020). Die „Psychological Humanities“ als reflexives Moment der Psychologie. In: V. BALZ, L. MALICH (Hrsg.), Psychologie und Kritik. Formen der Psychologisierung nach 1945, Springer, Cham, pp. 87-113.
MALICH, L., MUNAFÒ, M.R. (2022). Introduction: Replication of crises – interdisciplinary reflections on the phenomenon of the replication crisis in psychology. In: «Review of General Psychology», vol. XXVI, n. 2, pp. 127-130.
MARTÍN-BARÓ, I., ARON, A., CORNE, S. (1996). Writings for a liberation psychology, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA).
MIDGLEY, M. (1994). The ethical primate: Humans, freedom and morality, Routledge, London.
MORAWSKI, J.G. (1994). Practicing feminisms, reconstructing psychology: Notes on a liminal science, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.
MORAWSKI, J.G. (2019). The Replication crisis: How might philosophy and theory of psychology be of use?. In: «Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology», vol. XXXIX, n. 4, pp. 218-238.
MURRAY, M. (2015). Narrative psychology. In: J.A. SMITH (ed.), Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods, Sage, London, pp. 85-107.
PARKER, I. (1989). Discourse and power. In: J. SHOTTER, K. GERGEN (eds.), Texts of identity, Sage, London, pp. 56-69.
PETTIT, M., SERYKH, D., GREEN, C.D. (2015). Multi-species networks: Visualizing the psychological re-search of the committee for research in problems of sex. In: «Isis», vol. CVI, n. 1, pp. 121-149.
PHOENIX, A., WOOLLETT, A., LLOYD, E. (eds.) (1991). Motherhood, meanings, practices and ideologies, Sage, London.
PICKREN, W., RUTHERFORD, A. (2010). A history of modern psychology in context, Wiley, London.
PICKREN, W., TEO, T. (2018). Psychological humanities: Bridging the subtle and hard sciences, Conference Humanities in Translation, Barcelona, Spain.
PICKREN, W. (2019). Psychology and health: Culture, place, history, Routledge, London/New York.
RICHARDS, G. (2012). “Race”, racism and psychology. Towards a reflexive history, Psychology Press, New York.
RUTHERFORD, A. (2009). Beyond the box: B. F. Skinner’s technology of behavior from laboratory to life, 1950s –1970s, University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
ROBERTS, S.O. (2022). Dealing with diversity in psychology: Science and ideology. In: «PsyArXiv» - doi: 10.31234/osf.io/xk4yu.
ROBERTS, S.O., BAREKET-SHAVIT, C., DOLLINS, F.A., GOLDIE, P.D., MORTENSON, E. (2020). Racial inequality in psychological research: Trends of the past and recommendations for the future. In: «Perspectives on Psychological Science», vol. XV, n. 6, pp. 1295-1309.
RYDER, M. (2005). Scientism. In: C. MITCHAM (ed.), Encyclopedia of science, technology, and ethics, Macmillan, Thomson Gale, pp. 1735-1736.
SCHRAUBE, E. OSTERKAMP, U. (eds.) (2013). Psychology from the standpoint of the subject. Selected writings of Klaus Holzkamp, Palgrave Macmillan, London/New York.
STRAUB, J., WEIDEMANN, D., KÖLBL, C., ZIELKE, B. (eds.) (2006). Pursuit of meaning: Advances in cultural and cross-cultural psychology, Transcript, Bielefeldt.
SYED, M. (2021). Reproducibility, diversity, and the crisis of inference in psychology. Paper presented at the symposium data, rigor, and reproducibility in light of diversity, equity, and inclusion, University of Minnesota - https://osf.io/r7j6d/download
TEO, T. (2017). From psychological science to the psychological humanities: Building a general theory of sub-jectivity. In: «Review of General Psychology», vol. XXI, n. 4, pp. 281-291.
TEO, T. (2005). The critique of psychology: From Kant to postcolonial theory, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg.
THE QUILLETTE EDITORIAL BOARD (Producer) (2022). A rush to judgement in psychological science, retrieved from https://quillette.com/2022/12/12/a-rush-to-judgement-in-psychological-science/.
TRAWALTER, S., BART-PLANGE, D.-J., HOFFMAN, K.M. (2020). A socioecological psychology of racism: Making structures and history more visible. In: «Current Opinion in Psychology», vol. XXXII, pp. 47-51 – doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.06.029.
UHER, J. (2021). Psychology’s status as a science: Peculiarities and intrinsic challenges. Moving beyond its current deadlock towards conceptual integration. In: «Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science», vol. LV, n. 2, pp. 212-224.
UHER, J. (2022). Rating scales institutionalise a network of logical errors and conceptual problems in research practices: A rigorous analysis showing ways to tackle psychology’s crises. In: «Frontiers in Psychology», vol. XIII, Art. Nr. 9893 – doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022. 1009893.
VALSINER, J. (2014). An invitation to cultural psychology, Sage, London.
VALENTINE, E.R. (2014). Philosophy and history of psychology: Selected works of Elizabeth Valentine, Routledge, London/New York.
VAZIRE, S. (2018). Implications of the credibility revolution for productivity, creativity, and progress. In: «Perspectives on Psychological Science», vol. XIII, pp. 411-417 – doi: 10.1177/1745691617751884.
WHO (2022). International classification of diseases. 11th revision – https://icd.who.int/en.
WINTHROP, H. (1959). Scientism in psychology. In: «Journal of Individual Psychology», vol. XV, n. 1, pp. 112-120.
WIDOM, C., BRZUSTOWICZ, L. (2006). MAOA and the “cycle of violence”: childhood abuse and neglect, MAOA genotype, and risk for violent and antisocial behavior. In: «Biological Psychiatry», vol. LX, n. 7, pp. 684-689.
WIESER, M. (2016). Psychology’s “crisis” and the need for reflection. A plea for modesty in psychological theoriz-ing. In: «Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science», vol. L, n. 3, pp. 359-367.
WIESER, M. (2020). Über das „Messer des Chirurgen“ und „unangefochtene Inseln der Auslesearbeit“: Skizze einer Genealogie der psychologischen Moral. In: V. BALZ, L. MALICH (Hrsg.), Psychologie und Kritik. Formen der Psychologisierung nach 1945, Springer, Cham, pp. 141-161.
WIGGINS, B.J., CHRISTOPHERSON, C.D. (2019). The replication crisis in psychology: An overview for theoretical and philosophical psychology. In: «Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology»,, vol. XXXIX, n. 4, pp. 202-217.
WIJSEN, L.D., BORSBOOM, D., ALEXANDROVA, A. (2022). Values in psychometrics. In: «Perspectives on Psychological Science», vol. XVII, n. 3, pp. 788-804.
WUNDT, W. (1916). Elements of folk psychology. Outlines of a psychological history of the development of mankind, authorized translation by E.L. SCHAUB, George Allen & Unwin, London/New York (Original edition: Elemente der Völkerpsychologie. Grundlinien einer psychologischen Entwicklungsgechichte der Menschheit, Alfred Kröner Verlag, Leipzig/Stuttgart 1912).
ZIV, A., BAR-HAIM, S. (2023). Revising trauma. In: S. FROSH, M. VYRGIOTI, J. WALSH (eds.), The Palgrave handbook of psychosocial studies, Palgrave Macmillan, London/New York – doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-61510-9_51-1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4453/rifp.2024.0004
Copyright (c) 2024 Lisa Malich, David Keller
URLdella licenza: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Rivista internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia - ISSN: 2039-4667 (print) - E-ISSN: 2239-2629 (online)
Registrazione al Tribunale di Milano n. 634 del 26-11-2010 - Direttore Responsabile: Aurelia Delfino
Web provider Aruba spa - Loc. Palazzetto, 4 - 52011 Bibbiena (AR) - P.IVA 01573850516 - C.F. e R.I./AR 04552920482
Dove non diversamente specificato, i contenuti di Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia sono distribuiti con Licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale.