Re Envisioning Psychology

Does the practice of psychology make a significant and positive contribution to human welfare and the struggle for a good society? This book presents a reinvigorating look at psychology and its societal purpose, offering a bold new philosophical foundation from which professionals in the field can deeply examine their work.

This book studies the ideological nature of mainstream scientific psychology. It raises critical questions about the dominant forms of psychological theorization and praxis, based on their validity, social relevance and power privileges. Re-envisioning Psychology critically interrogates scientific images of the mind, individual, gender, development, society and culture that mainstream psychology promotes. The issues taken up in this book revolve around the pivotal concerns of psychology’s scientific basis, its dominant quantitative research methodology, the construction of ‘individual’ as the unit of analysis, the conceptualization of ‘social’, ‘cultural’ and ‘gender’ in relation to individualism, and the understanding of abnormality as shaped by the discourses of medical science and capitalism. Comprehensive and topical, the book will be useful to students, researchers, and teachers of psychology, applied psychology, social work, gender and women studies, and sociology. It will also be of interest to professional counsellors and psychotherapists.

This volume presents a re-envisioning of the field of theoretical psychology and offers unique visions for its present and future from leaders of North American philosophical psychology. It contends that theoretical psychology has reached ‘middle-age’ and must consider new directions to renew its growth. Rooted in a range of research traditions and the intellectual biographies of its authors, it paves the way toward this necessary revitalization of the content, activities, responsibilities, and hopes of theoretical psychology. The authors situate their analyses in the context of the increasing gap between alternative and mainstream and between the discipline and the profession of psychology. They demonstrate that changes in society, culture and technology, the internationalization of the psychological humanities, and the cross-fertilization of intellectual innovations from other disciplines now afford possibilities for new orientations in theoretical psychology. The volume aims to do justice to psychological topics, human beings, and the intellectual problems that psychologists encounter, while also providing space for (meta)theoretical engagement, often neglected in the discipline. Together, the chapters in this collection make the case that a renewal of the discipline and practice of psychology is a task that is best accomplished collectively, and, despite significant disagreements, in solidarity.

"This book studies the ideological nature of mainstream scientific psychology. It raises critical questions on dominant forms of psychological theorization and praxis based on their validity, social relevance and power privileges. The book critically interrogates scientific images of the mind, individual, gender, development, society and culture that mainstream psychology throws up. The issues taken up in this book revolve around the pivotal concerns of psychology's scientific basis, its dominant quantitative research methodology, the construction of 'individual' as the unit of analysis, the conceptualization of 'social', 'cultural', and 'gender' in relation to that, and the understanding of abnormality as is shaped by the discourses of medical science, individualism, and capitalism. Comprehensive and topical, the book will be useful to students, researchers, and teachers of psychology, applied psychology, social work, gender and women studies, and sociology. It will also be of interest to professional counsellors and psychotherapists. Comprehensive and topical, the book would be useful to the students, researchers, and teachers of psychology, applied psychology, social work, gender and women studies, and sociology. It will also be useful for professional counsellors and psychotherapists"--

This groundbreaking classic explores the necessity of connections between our life and soul and developing the main lines of the soul-making process.

This groundbreaking classic explores the necessity of connections between our life and soul and developing the main lines of the soul-making process.

The unprecedented developments in education, information and communication technology that took place during the last decades of the twentieth century have led to a metamorphosis of processes and practices in almost all spheres of human endeavours. Higher education has undergone important paradigm shifts, which include the shift from a teacher-centric system of learning to a student-centric system of learning, and the replacement of the traditional practice of learning over a specified period of time by the concept of lifelong learning. Education technology (ET) and information communication technology (ICT) today play an important role in productive and relevant learning. In this context, it is necessary to appreciate the fact that the first step towards realizing the aim of making our society a continuously learning society is to make education accessible and affordable for all.

In today’s church, use of the term transformation has become commonplace. Various perspectives are offered on what a Christian view of transformation is—and on how it may be achieved. These often-conflicting views suggest an ecclesial landscape characterized by pluralism, division, fragmentation, confusion, relativism, individualism, pragmatism, and subjectivism. Despite the current interest in transformational theology, the absence of a common, coherent, and integrated vision (and the lack of transformation) is often accepted and affirmed. Re-Envisioning Transformation looks at the possibility of moving toward a vision of transformational theology that is cohesive, unified, broad, effectual, and distinctly Christian. In this book, the contributions of two radically different“theologians of the Christian life” are examined. This provides the basis from which to develop a comprehensive and integrated framework of transformational theology—pointing God’s people toward the need to express and live out a distinctly Christian vision.