Uncovering Critical Personalism: Readings from William Stern’s Contributions to Scientific Psychology (Palgrave Studies in the Theory and History of Psychology)

This book brings together the central tenets of William Stern's critical personalism. Presented for the first time for an English-speaking audience, this selection of original translations and essays encapsulates the critical framework of Stern's personalistic psychology. The selected works highlight the philosophical basis of Stern's personalistic views, illustrate their relevance in domains of theoretical and practical importance in psychology, and reveal Stern's critical stance on certain methodological trends that were gaining favor within psychology during his lifetime. Lamiell's own chapters contextualise the translations by providing an overview of the most basic tenets of critical personalism, and offering a commentary on paradigmatic commitments within scientific psychology's mainstream that began to impede Stern's efforts prior to his death, and that remain obstacles to personalistic thinking in the discipline today. Largely ignored by his contemporaries, this work forms part of an emerging body of scholarship that seeks to reintroduce Stern's thinking into contemporary psychology. The book is intended for academically oriented scholars with interests in historical, theoretical and philosophical issues in psychology. James T. Lamiell is Professor Emeritus of psychology at Georgetown University, USA. He is a three-time Fulbright scholar to Germany, and has been engaged with the writings of William Stern for over 30 years. As a visiting professor at the University of Hamburg in 2004, he delivered a series of public lectures on Stern's life and works Foreword 7 References 12 Preface 14 Contents 16 1: William Stern and Personalistic Thinking: Making Acquaintance 18 Stern’s Personalistic Perspective in Context: Biographical and Intellectual Groundings 19 The Rudiments of Critical Personalism 22 Persons versus Things 22 The Thesis of Psychophysical Neutrality 24 The Entelechy of Personal Doings 27 Goal Systems in the Dynamics of Personal Doings and Adjustments 28 An Illustration of Person-world Convergence During Child Development 30 Values and Valuation 32 Note Bene: Personalism Is Not Individualism 32 A Closing Observation 35 References 38 2: Impersonalism 40 The Derivation of Impersonalism 42 The Theses of Impersonalism 46 The Development of Impersonalism 49 Reference 61 3: The Concept of the Person and the Problem of Freedom 62 The Concept of the Person 63 The Fundamental Attributes of the Person: Multifaceted Unity, Goal Directedness, Individuality 64 Person and World (Hierarchy and Convergence) 67 Psychophysical Neutrality 70 The Problem of Freedom 72 Reference 78 4: Personalistic Psychology 79 The Person 80 The Psychological 85 References 93 5: The Personalistics of Recollection 94 The Essence of Recollection 95 The I-Relatedness of Recollection 102 The World-Relatedness of Recollection 108 The Development of Recollection 113 References 125 6: The ‘Problem of Individuality’ in Scientific Psychology 126 Stern’s Foundational Ideas in Differential Psychology 128 Veering Off the Course Set by Stern: Conflating Knowledge of Individual Differences and Knowledge of Individuals 131 Individuality as an Object of Research10 134 Biography12 137 References 145 7: Personality Research and the Methods of Testing 147 Point I: The Person Is a Unified Whole 148 Point II: The Person Has Depth 153 Reference 161 8: The Personal Factor in Psychotechnics and Practical Psychology 162 The Nature and Concerns of Psychotechnics 163 Human Work as Performance, Experience, and Expression 167 Implications for Diagnostic Methods 169 Reference 174 9: Meaning and Interpretation 175 Meaning 175 Interpretation 182 Reference 198 10: Conceptual Work Matters 199 Conceptual Work Matters 200 References 205 Name Index 207 Subject Index 209 This book brings together the central tenets of William Stern's critical personalism. Presented for the first time for an English-speaking audience, this selection of original translations and essays encapsulates the critical framework of Stern's personalistic psychology. The selected works highlight the philosophical basis of Stern's personalistic views, illustrate their relevance in domains of theoretical and practical importance in psychology, and reveal Stern's critical stance on certain methodological trends that were gaining favor within psychology during his lifetime. Lamiell's own chapters contextualise the translations by providing an overview of the most basic tenets of critical personalism, and offering a commentary on paradigmatic commitments within scientific psychology's mainstream that began to impede Stern's efforts prior to his death, and that remain obstacles to personalistic thinking in the discipline today. Largely ignored by his contemporaries, this work forms part of an emerging body of scholarship that seeks to reintroduce Stern's thinking into contemporary psychology. The book is intended for academically oriented scholars with interests in historical, theoretical and philosophical issues in psychology.-- "Provided by publisher"