Naming the Mind: How Psychology Found Its Language

by Kurt Danziger

Overview

Intelligence, motivation, personality, learning, stimulation, behaviour and attitude are just some of the categories that map the terrain of ‘psychological reality'. These are the concepts which, among others, underpin theoretical and empirical work in modern psychology - and yet these concepts have only recently taken on their contemporary meanings.

This fascinating work is a persuasive explanation of how modern psychology found its language. Kurt Danziger develops an account that goes beyond the taken-for-granted quality of psychological discourse to offer a profound and broad-ranging analysis of the recent evolution of the concepts and categories on which it depends. Danziger explores this process and shows how its conse

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803977631
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	05/06/1997
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.47(d)

About the Author

Kurt Danziger is Professor Emeritus at York University, Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Constructing the Subject (1990) is his most recently published book.

Table of Contents

Naming the Mind
The Ancients
The Great Transformation
The Physiological Background
Putting Intelligence on the Map
Behaviour and Learning
Motivation and Personality
Attitudes
Metalanguage
The Technological Framework
The Nature of Psychological Kinds

Editorial Reviews

‘I wish I had it in my power to make this book by Kurt Danziger required reading for any psychologist who teaches or contemplates teaching a course in the history of the field. Why? Because it eloquently challenges the current view that the category language of the 20th-century American psychology reflects a natural and universal order of psychological phenomena. In Naming the Mind: How Psychology Found Its Language, Danziger shows very convincingly what is wrong with that picture' -Theory & Psychology

‘Naming the Mind consolidates a vast body of scholarship on psychological language and offers a persuasive model for appreciating the dynamic play and implications of this expert language....For those researchers concerned with psychology's language, Naming the Mind is a smart read' - Feminism & Psychology

From the Publisher