Open AccessHistory of “History of Psychology” in Japan
Author(s) -
Sato Tatsuya,
Mizoguchi Hazime,
Arakawa Ayumu,
Hidaka Souta,
Takasuna Miki,
Nishikawa Yasuo
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
japanese psychological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5884
pISSN - 0021-5368
DOI - 10.1111/jpr.12120
Subject(s) - historiography , history of psychology , popular psychology , critical psychology , intellectual history , asian psychology , criticism , social science , theoretical psychology , psychology , social history (medicine) , political history , psychology, philosophy and physiology , history , sociology , psychoanalysis , literature , political science , cognitive psychology , law , politics , economic history , art , archaeology , medicine , surgery
Abstract Only a few Japanese psychologists have been interested in the history of psychology. The historiography—or the methodology of historical description—for the history of psychology has been ignored. Moreover, chairs for professors, academic journals, academic meetings, and an archive of the history of psychology remain to be established. In this paper, the history of the “history of psychology” in Japan is explored. This academic sub‐discipline has emerged only during the past few decades and a theory driven historiography covering the history of psychology was initiated in Japan only at the end of the 20th century. Activities on the history of Japanese psychology can be divided into three phases: (a) the traditional history (translations and introduction of foreign knowledge and celebration of history); (b) the transition phase (the movement towards social criticism and archival research from intra‐discipline); and (c) the history based on the historiography. Lastly, recent trends in the history of psychology in Japan are examined and discussed.