Naming the Mind How Psychology Found Its Language [Hardcover]

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 conseIntelligence, 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`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 lc(