A History of Psychology in Western Civilization

This book is a re-introduction to psychology. It focuses on great scholarly thinkers, beginning with Plato, Marcus Aurelius and St Augustine, who gave the field its foundational ideas long before better known 'founders', such as Galton, Fechner, Wundt and Watson, appeared on the scene. Psychology can only achieve its full breadth and potential when we fully appreciate its scholarly legacy. Bruce Alexander and Curtis Shelton also argue that the fundamental contradictions built into psychology's history have never been resolved, and that a truly pragmatic approach, as defined by William James, can produce a 'layered' psychology that will enable psychologists to face the fearsome challenges of the twenty-first century. A History of Psychology in Western Civilization claims that contemporary psychology has overemphasized the methods of physical science and that psychology will need a broader scientific orientation alongside a scholarly focus in order to fully engage the future.

• Presents a 'parallel' rather than 'sequential' conception of the history of psychology - where scholarly history is presented as seven classic perspectives on the human psyche, all of which have been evolving separately since
• Focuses in depth on the key classic scholars considered to be the most important to psychology - Plato, Marcus Aurelius, St Augustine, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Darwin and Freud
• Each of the classic scholars is linked with at least one contemporary psychologist, enabling readers to see that classical perspectives already live in the present, but there is also much more about them to be discovered