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American psychology and the religious imagination
Author(s) -
Fuller Robert C.
Publication year - 2006
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/jhbs.20170
Subject(s) - spirituality , cultural psychology , epistemology , asian psychology , metaphysics , sociology , psychology , social psychology , social science , critical psychology , philosophy , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
In just three generations, American psychology grew from a fledgling science to a culturally authoritative discipline. Standard accounts of psychology's meteoric rise typically omit what most needs to be illuminated: the resonance between psychological theory and the symbolic universe underlying America's popular religious imagination. This article sketches a cultural history of American psychology by examining how many of its core concepts invoke a metaphysical horizon associated with the nation's heritage of unchurched spirituality. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.