Presentism and Diversity in the History of Psychology

Abstract

Providing an entry on the history of psychology for the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia has proved to be more problematic than one might expect. In particular, someone who goes under the internet name, 'Jagged_85' inserted claims to the effect that most of the major developments in the history of psychology have their origins in the medieval Arab world. Similar claims and at least one attempt to challenge those claims have appeared in the professional literature. A special issue of the online newsletter, Advances in the History of Psychology devoted to this topic has also appeared under the title, BPresentism in the Service of Diversity?T he term, Bpresentism^has several meanings but it usually refers to projecting the views of the present onto the past instead of making a serious attempt to understand how historical figures themselves understood the world. The present paper endorses the view that the claims of authors like 'Jagged_85' constitute presentism in the usual sense of the term. It also offers suggestions for how diversity without this type of presentism might be achieved.

Indigenous psychology: Going nowhere slowly?

“…Indeed, for Malik Badri (1979)—the acknowledged “father” of Islamic psychology—“the dilemma of Muslim psychologists” involves a certain tension between the modern psychological canon and the psychological theories of premodern Muslim scholars. One can appreciate, therefore, the inclination toward apologetics—as when a Wikipedia user named Jagged_85 attempted to prove that most of the milestones in the history of psychology could be attributed to medieval Muslim scholars (Brock, 2015). In short, Islamic psychology may have a modicum of institutional support in countries such as Malaysia and, more recently, Turkey, but it remains more a forum for philosophical abstraction and “quiet rebellion” than a fully fledged subdiscipline (Allwood, 2011, p. 11).…”

Psychologists return to the first question of Western philosophy.

“…However, historians warn of presentist applications of modern notions of that scientific discipline (Copleston, 1962; Staloff, 2013). The historiographic sin of presentism is the application of recently created categories (or values, like feminism) when interpreting what early peoples were up to (Brock, 2015). Physics today is an activity in many ways unlike the activity of the Presocratics.…”

A useful science: Criminal interrogation and the turn to psychology in Germany around 1800

“…According to this view, still common in textbooks, Wilhelm Wundt and his experimental methods made psychology into a sustainable and innovative discipline in the late nineteenth century. In response, historians of psychology have extensively debated where we might situate the origins of "modern psychology"-or even simply of "psychology"-and by what criteria (Brock, 2015;Danziger, 1997Danziger, , 2013Robinson, 2013;Teo, 2005). Apart from the late nineteenth century, antiquity, the eighteenth century, the early nineteenth century and the mid-twentieth century have been held out as candidates.…”