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The structure of psychological revolutions
Author(s) -
Buss Allan R.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(197801)14:1<57::aid-jhbs2300140109>3.0.co;2-7
Subject(s) - transformative learning , object (grammar) , relation (database) , dialectic , subject (documents) , epistemology , psychoanalytic theory , psychoanalysis , humanism , psychology , order (exchange) , philosophy , developmental psychology , computer science , linguistics , theology , finance , database , library science , economics
Four major revolutions within psychology (i.e., the behavioristic, cognitive, psychoanalytic, and humanistic) are briefly examined in an attempt to unearth their formal structures. The view put forth is that it is a transformation of the subject‐object relation — an insight gleaned by an application of Ludwig Feuerbach's transformative method — which underlies major paradigmatic shifts within psychology. It is noted that psychological revolutions based upon a transformation of the subject‐object relation could go on indefinitely in a vicious, circular manner. Thus, a revolution to end revolutions is called for (a dialectical revolution) in order to liberate psychologists from partialist, encapsulated, or limiting views of the subject‐object relation.