Psychology, Society, and Subjectivity: An Introduction to German Critical Psychology

Challenges to received notions of psychological theory and practice have been on the increase in recent years. Traditional positivist approaches are being abandoned in favour of alternatives deriving from the other social sciences and from philosophy. Psychology, Society and Subjectivity traces the history and development of German critical psychology. Its author, Charles Tolman, charts the initial dissent from mainstream psychology in the late 1960s, to the reconstruction of a psychology that is truly for people, not simply one about people. Drawing on the work of leading figures such as Klaus Holzkamp, Psychology, Society and Subjectivity should be read by anyone keen to make psychology relevant without sacrificing its rigour. Tolman has also published Positivism in Psychology (Springer Verlag, 1992); and Critical Psychology: Toward a Historical Science of the Subject (CUP, 1991), Maiers.