[An] extended, contemplative essay on the role played by narrative in the construal of meaning. In [this] work, Bruner elaborates on the failure of cognitive science in abandoning ‘meaning-making’ for ‘information processing,’ and its attendant concentration on computational logic… Bruner, as one of the most influential psychologists of this century, makes an important statement well worth reading.
Bruner again demonstrates his impressive range of interest as he proposes nothing less than to set the essential agenda for psychology today… Bruner aims his manifesto not at the behaviorists—he considers that struggle long since won—but at those members of his own cognitive party who have sold their souls to the computer… [He] describes how psychology can rededicate itself to the study of meaning and its formation. Having spent an illustrious career ascending the mountain, he now takes an elder statesman’s panoramic view… Those interested in the current debates in psychology will find [this] book provocative and stimulating.
Washington Times - Paul Buttenwieser
Acts of Meaning , written by one of the most distinguished thinkers in human development, is an insightful summary of the past trends in the field, and is, perhaps, a prophetic glimpse into the future. Bruner’s breadth of knowledge makes for thought-provoking and enjoyable reading for anyone interested in human culture.
Harvard Educational Review
An engaging, provocative, and knowing book.
Contemporary Psychology - William Kessen
The failure of the cognitive revolution to unravel the mysteries of the workings of the human mind as the creator of meanings is the starting point for Jerome Bruner’s Acts of Meaning . He argues that psychology should return to human concerns, especially the role of culture in shaping our thoughts and the language we use to express them… [He] seems to have read and assimilated everyone else’s ideas on the topics he discusses. He can—and does—allude to them in context, so that we are constantly rubbing elbows with the giants on whose shoulders he stands. Erudite and recondite, the text glistens with Bruner’s bold style.
The failure of the cognitive revolution to unravel the mysteries of the workings of the human mind as the creator of meanings is the starting point for Jerome Bruner ’s Acts of Meaning . He argues that psychology should return to human concerns, especially the role of culture in shaping our thoughts and the language we use to express them… [He] seems to have read and assimilated everyone else’s ideas on the topics he discusses. He can—and does—allude to them in context, so that we are constantly rubbing elbows with the giants on whose shoulders he stands. Erudite and recondite, the text glistens with Bruner’s bold style.
New York Times Book Review - Dava Sobel
An engaging, provocative, and knowing book.
Bruner again demonstrates his impressive range of interest as he proposes nothing less than to set the essential agenda for psychology today...Bruner aims his manifesto not at the behaviorists—he considers that struggle long since won—but at those members of his own cognitive party who have sold their souls to the computer...[He] describes how psychology can rededicate itself to the study of meaning and its formation. Having spent an illustrious career ascending the mountain, he now takes an elder statesman's panoramic view...Those interested in the current debates in psychology will find [this] book provocative and stimulating.
[Bruner] argues that psychology should return to human concerns, especially the role of culture in shaping our thoughts and the language we use to express them... [He] seems to have read and assimilated everyone else's ideas on the topics he discusses. He can-and does-allude to them in context, so that we are constantly rubbing elbows with the giants on whose shoulders he stands. Erudite and recondite, the text glistens with Bruner's bold style.
New York Times Book Review
A psychologist and educator, and a pioneer in the field of cognition, Bruner provides an outline for a new synthesis of inquiry into mind and culture. The book consists of the 1989-90 Jerusalem-Harvard lectures divided into four chapters. The first, ``The Proper Study of Man,'' is a critique of the current antihistorical,anticultural bias of cognitive psychology, especially its information-processing model of the mind. ``Folk Psychology as an Instrument of Culture'' asserts that culturally shaped notions, stories, and narratives organize experience and manage expectations. ``Entry into Meaning'' views the beginnings of social understanding as a capacity to render experience in terms of narrative discourse (to be in a culture is to be in a set of connecting stories). Finally, ``Autobiography and Self'' illustrates the classic concept of Self from the perspective of cultural psychology--that ``selves are not isolated nuclei of consciousness locked in the head, but are `distributed' interpersonally.'' A challenging manifesto for a cultural psychology by a major figure in the field.-- William Abrams, Portland State Univ. Lib., Ore.
Renowned psychologist Bruner (NYU) presents a critique of the fractionated state of psychology today and, at the same time, lays the theoretical foundations for a new synthesis of inquiry into mind and culture. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
