Narrating Psychology Or, How Psychology Gets Made

The science of psychology faces a crisis because for some time many of the most formative leaders of the discipline have pretended that their discipline is something it is not. They have pretended that psychology is a natural science, and thus they have not done justice to the distinctive character of psychology as a human science. This is the first thesis of the discussion which is to follow in this book. The reasons why psychologists have attempted to establish the scientific status of their discipline are quite understandable. In the modern context where all other means of validating knowledge have been brought into question, science has remained the one source of authority still widely respected. Thus, when during the late decades of the nineteenth century psychologists began to imitate the natural sciences in order to justify claims that their discipline was truly scientific, they were trying to establish its authority.There is ample evidence that religious thought was and important intellectual model for many of the psychologists who were pioneers of their special science. But the importance of religion has been virtually washed out of the history of the discipline. A disciplinary history which tries to bury evidence concerning the religious investments of its heroes, or historians who minimize the significance of religion because religion is not something which they personally believe is important can only breed deception. Such suppression of the truth is not only dishonest, it is a vulgar form of prejudice. This book investigates this prejudice.Vander Goot, Mary is the author of 'Narrating Psychology Or, How Psychology Gets Made' with ISBN 9781556050152 and ISBN 1556050151.