心理学的历史编纂学:后现代主义的挑战

Historiography of Psychology:Challenges of Postmodernism

后现代主义思潮深刻影响了心理学史的研究与写作。传统的心理学历史编纂学接受真理的符合论,认为心理学的发展史是一维的和历时的。它习惯于在心理学的发展史中寻找某些"中心"或"标志",并假定了不同的国家和民族、不同历史时期的心理学所面对的是同一主题。但是后现代主义的心理学历史编纂学强调了历史的社会建构特性,认为心理学史叙述的并非一种"客观实在",而是史学家的一种话语建构。后现代主义的心理学历史编纂学使得心理学史家更明确的意识到历史知识的主观性,有助于心理学史家认识历史研究中的价值和意识形态问题,正视文化视角造成的认识差异,因而是有着积极意义的。

The studying and chronicling of the history of psychology has been deeply influenced by the postmodernist movement. The traditional historiography of psychology （THP）, in search of objective historical facts, adopts the correspondence theory of truth and considers the natural science model as its paradigm. It regards the development of psychology as a linear, one - dimensional, and accumulative process in which all nations and cultures dealt with the same subject of psychology during different historical periods. THP claims that some drawbacks notwithstanding, the history of psychology is a story of progress. In addition, THP chronicles the manner in which a ＂center＂ or a ＂mark＂ was set up as a criterion against which all people, schools of thought, events, and activities in the history of psychology were classified as advanced or laggard and as central or marginal. In striking contrast with THP, the postmodern historiography of psychology （PHP） regards the history of psychology as a social construction, claiming that the history of psychology was socially constructed by psychologists. According to postmodern historians, the narratives of history are not representation of historical facts, but the construction of historians. The processes of the construction are deeply rooted in specific cultures of the time. Historiography of psychology is not concerned with natural objects but discursive ones. Categories such as motivation, intelligence, mind and personality refer to historical and social entities, and not to ＂natural kinds＂ Postmodern claims have significant implications for the study of the history of psychology. PHP will enable the historians of psychology to effectively recognize the subjectivity of knowledge embedded in the history of psychology. It will also make psychologists aware of the values and ideologies in the study of the history of psychology and enable them to approach the history of psychology from the viewpoints of different cultures.