This book aims to comprehend the social character of psychological functioning. I argue that psychological functions are quintessentially social in nature and that this social character must be comprehended if psychological knowledge and practice are to advance. The social nature of psychological phenomena consists in the fact that they are constructed by individuals in the process of social interaction, they depend upon properties of social interaction, one of their primary purposes is facilitating social interaction, and they embody the specific character of historically bound social relations.

This viewpoint is known as sociohistorical psychology. lt was articulated most profoundly and comprehensively by the Russian psychologists Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria during the 1920's and 1930's. Unfortunately, their work has remained marginal in the Soviet Union and in the West, unable to penetrate into mainstream psychological science. The present book attempts to demonstrate that soclohistorical psychology is a valid view of psychological phenomena which can redirect psychological science toward fruitful future development.

While psychologists occasionally touch on the social character of psychological phenomena, they fail to fully comprehend it or appreciate its centrality. One reason for this failure is that psychological phenomena are intellectually fractured into separate faculties and components. This fragmentation relegates social character to being one component of one or another faculty. Social character is thereby prevented from being central to all psychological functions. In other words, the asocial view of psychology is supported by an atomistic view.

Appreciating the social character of psychology therefore requires replacing this atomistic view with an integral conception of all psychological phenomena as having a common social basis and character. Such an integral, comprehensive conception constitutes a paradigm. I hope to demonstrate that employing sociohistorical psychology as a paradigm will provide a coherent understanding of diverse psychological functions including cognition, perception, emotions, memory, language, personality, and psychological dysfunction. Furthermore, the paradigmatic use of sociohistorical psychology will advance the discipline of psychology to a more profound comprehension of its subject matter and a more effective application of this knowledge to practice.

A work of this scope cannot be written without substantial help from other people. Among the many individuals who have contributed in numerous ways I would like to express special appreciation to the following for their invaluable assistance: Roy D'Andrade, Michael Cole, James Wertsch, Norris Minick, Theodore Sarbin, Solomon Asch, Bill Livant, Bud Andersen, Gus Bagakis, Phil & Elaine German, Bernard Ratner, Tom Langehaug, David Bakhurst, Derek Edwards, Mark Kaplan, Josh Weinstein, Susan Frances, Kim McCreery, and Bob Robbins.

I am especially indebted to Edith Gold, John Mandes, and Lumei Hui for their painstaking editorial assistance.

         
Table of Contents




Preface

Table of Contents


Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 Human Psychology's General Features 
     The mediated nature of human psychology The interdependence        
     of consciousness and sociality
       Rudimentary consciousness and sociality of animals
       Human consciousness and sociality
       A social model of psychology
The interdependence of consciousness, sociality, and tool use

Chapter 2    Psychology's Concrete Social Character 
     The social constitution and variability of content           
          Color perception
          Auditory perception
          Olfactory perception
          Size constancy
         Spatial perception
         Conceptual categorization
         Emotions
         Needs
The social constitution and variability of form
        Decontextualized vs. contextualized mental processes 
           Time sense
           Color perception and conceptualization
           Shape perception and conceptualization
           Logic
           Measurement and quantification
           Memory
           Personhood
        The social basis of abstraction
        Variation of mental processes along other dimensions


Chapter 3    Psychological Universals, True and False
        The relation between general and concrete psychological features False           
        psychological universals

Chapter 4 The Development of Psychology in the Individual
     The  transition  from infantile reflexes  to social        
          psychological phenomena
     Culture and socialization
     The non-mechanical character of socialization
     Capacity and performance
     The social psychology of genius

Chapter 5  Psychology's Functional Autonomy From Biology
     Genes and psychology
     Sense receptors and psychology
     Hormones and psychology
           sexuality
           aggression
           emotions
The cortex and psychology

Chapter 6    Madness
      Definition of Madness
      Sociohistorical analysis of Madness
            Causes of Madness
                anomalous disruptive events
                    immigration
                    unemployment
                        mediating events
      normative, enduring social situations
            gender role
            poverty
            socioeconomic practices
            psychiatric practices
Symptoms
cultural variations
         variations fashioned from psychiatric concepts
         social class variations
         gender variations
     Treatment therapy
Nonsocial analyses of Madness
     Causes
        the diathesis-stress model
        attachment theory
        humanistic psychology
     Symptoms
      Treatment, therapy
         behavior modification
         biomedical treatment
         humanistic therapy

Conclusion      Political Aspects of Psychological Doctrines