Big news: psychological theories are not really science but the product of
social and political conditions. Edited by Carl Graumann and Kenneth Gergen, the
slightly self-important Historical Dimensions of Psychological Discourse aims to
be a critical history of psychology. The authors seem to argue that psychology
has been warped to justify locking souls in asylums and prisons. One paper
claims that statistical methods aren’t mere tools but actually shape
theories—hardly an original observation. Published by Cambridge University
Press, £30/$44.95, ISBN 0521480213.
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