Philosophy of Psychology Books - Page 3

Psychology and the Soul: A Study of the Origin, Conceptual Evolution, and Nature of the Soul

Otto Rank

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An important neglected study of religion and psychology 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Published in German in 1930, this book was poorly translated in 1950 but influenced writers like Ernest Becker and Ira Progoff. This is the first complete translation of a work which places soul and will in historical context from the standpoint of Freud's once-closest colleague. Introduction by E. J. Lieberman, author of _Acts of Will: The Life and Work of Otto Rank_.

Editorial Review:

In his last years, Otto Rank turned his lifetime of thought and learning toward two of the most difficult topics in human history: religion and the soul. The result was this now-classic work, available in this new, very accessible English translation. Unlike many other intellectuals of the twentieth century, Rank maintains a place for the soul rather than dismissing it as a fantasy. The soul and the beliefs about it, he argues, set forth the foundation for psychology, with its complex analyses of consciousness, self-consciousness, and personality. Rank's commentary is not limited to beliefs about individual souls but includes ideas about group souls, sometimes encompassing nations or generations. Rank suggests that it is in expression of group beliefs that the idea of the soul attains its greatest power.

German Essays on Psychology (The German Library, V. 62)

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a fantastic volume 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This volume is of essence for anyone interested in psychology, philosophy, and the innumerable intersections, cross-cuttings, and knots that make these two fields stiffly inseparable. Wolfgang Schirmacher's selections are fantastic, and his introduction provides an inspiring and thought-provoking context in which to read the essays that follow. You won't find such a collection anywhere else! If we are to understand the historical trends that have influenced the way in which we think about psychology, we must understand the thinkers in this volume.
The book is divided into four sections. In the first, "Psychology as Philosophy," we encounter Wilhelm Dilthey, Edmund Husserl, Eduard Spranger, and Wilhelm Wundt, each trying to define and revise the role of psychology within the sciences and the humanities. The second section, "Psychoanalysis and its Critics," which includes essays by Alfred Adler, Anna Freud, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, Carl Jung, and Wilhelm Reich, will be more familiar to students whose encounter with philosophical psychology has been primarily founded in psychoanalytic theory. For students of psychology, many of the ideas articulated by these thinkers have become so prevalent in the milieu that a rereading proves itself essential. An important addition to this section is the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, whose theories have come under attack in recent years by scholars influenced by postmodernism, who have pegged Jungian psychology with the four-letter-word `essentialism.' A reexamination of these theories may prove them to be less determinate than at first glance. The third section of the volume is comprised of essays by Gestalt psychologists Chistian von Ehrenfels, Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Köhler, Kurt Lewin, and Max Wertheimer. These essays, along with the writings of Wundt, have been, in the realm of experimental psychology, arguably the most influential of those included in this volume.
Finally, the last section of the volume, "Iconoclasts in Psychology," contains essays from a number of authors (Ludwig Binswanger, Karl Jaspers, Alexander Mitscherlich, Wilhelm Salber, and Erwin Straus) whose revolutionary theories have influenced, noticeably or not, psychologies more familiar to mainstream academics. Binswanger's notion that "the neurotic, too," can be brought back "down to earth" from Extravagance with the aid of a psychotherapist is a subtle reversal of terms, a theory perhaps more acceptable to clinicians who find Deleuze and Guattari (who have suggested that it is the neurotic, rather than the psychotic, who is incurable) abstruse. Salber's notion of a "self-therapy of reality" is an incisive reminder that psychology's basic questions have not yet been satisfactorily answered. Lastly, Straus's exposition "On Being Awake," provides a reevaluation of the Cartesian notion of dreams. Straus's argument becomes uncannily reminiscent of the aforementioned debates concerning methodology.
As Karl Jaspers points out, if the relation of empirical psychological pursuits and their philosophical counterparts is not conscious, this will lead to a confusion of the two spheres. It is no secret that the rational positivist position of experimental psychology has, especially in recent years, a problematic relationship to philosophical logic; the very philosophies professed to be inadequate or too "vague" for scientific pursuits are nevertheless incorporated into empirical endeavors, as if afterthoughts. The new "postmodern" psychotherapies (e.g., narrative therapy), for example, suddenly gained interest at the same time that philosophers began to contemplate what was (is) to happen as the postmodern era wanes. However, just because psychologists may be oblivious to society's general philosophical sentiments doesn't mean that patients are as well, and without the philosophical insights that are put through the (slower) laboratorial machinery, psychotherapists might remain waiting for empirical guidance that emerges years too late. The relevance of the articles presented in this volume is not only an issue of theoretical and statistical accuracy, but also a problem of practical integrity if we are not, as Schirmacher puts it, to treat humans as "better-suited rats."

Editorial Review:

Volume 62 of this ground-breaking 100 volume collection is organized into four sections: Psychology as Philosophy, Psychoanalysis and Its Critics, Research in Gestalt Psychology, and The Iconoclasts.

A showcase of German-psychological thinkers and thought through the 20th century, this volume includes several new translations of articles by pyschologists whose work is rarely available in English.

The Paradox of Power and Weakness: Levinas and an Alternative Paradigm for Psychology (S U N Y Series, Alternatives in Psychology)

George Kunz

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Kunz uses Levinas to radically open up the way we live. 5 out of 5 stars.
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Kunz's book is a wonderful read without losing the thickness of Levinas's ideas. It answered the question I've struggled with for years, if you're happy and complete, why act? He makes a clear case for moving the center of existance off the ego and onto the other. We act because need in the face of the other calls us to act. In the face of that need we have no choice but to act, even if that act is to turn coldly from those in need.

He argues for a new psychology based not on the ego as the center of the world, but on the need of the other as the center of the world.

This book radically opened up my way of being with the ideas of Levinas, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Editorial Review:

The metaethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas challenges Western egocentrism by describing the self as egoic yet nevertheless ethically called to transcend its own obsessions, compulsions, and addictions, and to respect and serve others. While power is powerful and weakness is weak, power can sabotage itself, and the weakness of others has power to command our attention and service. Levinas makes distinctions that offer psychology the basis for an alternative paradigm open to paradox. In The Paradox of Power and Weakness, George Kunz shows how the analyses of hagiography, cynicism, and limits on altruistic behavior by radical altruism contribute to this psychology of ethical responsibility for social sciences.

The Psychology of Existence: An Integrative, Clinical Perspective

Kirk J Schneider, Rollo May

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A prestigious, original title co-authored by Rollo May, one of the best selling American fathers of existential psychology. This long awaited text in existential psychology presents a practical, integrative approach to the discipline especially for the training clinician. Three broad dimensions are emphasized: its literary, philosophical, and psychological heritage, its recent and future trends, and its therapeutic applications.