Münsterberg's nightmare

Psychology and history in fin-de-siècle Germany and America

Bibliographic Data

ID4002805
AuthorsM Stoffers (0000-0001-9165-8200, Maastricht University, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume39
Issue2
Pages163-182
Publication date2003-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-5061 • E-ISSN: 1520-6696
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/jhbs.10107
PMID12720325
OpenAlexW2140992752
LanguageDE
Citations received3
References cited31

This article demonstrates that Hugo Münsterberg's presidential address "Psychology and History," delivered to the American Psychological Association in 1898, should be understood in the German context of the 1890s. It constituted a response to a central feature of fin-de-siècle culture in Europe, the revolt against positivism. To be more precise, Münsterberg reacted against a new intellectual trend that was arising in Germany in the middle 1890s: the call for a historically oriented social psychology put forward by Wilhelm Dilthey-who was explicitly attacking Münsterberg's physiological conception of psychology-and new cultural historians like Karl Lamprecht and others who seemed to be putting Dilthey's program into practice. (c) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Art · Art history · Context (archaeology) · Epistemology · Fin de siecle · German · History of psychiatry · History of psychology · Nightmare · Political science · Positivism · Presidential address · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · Yearbook · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Educational Philosophies and Pedagogies · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Representations and Identity