The Hidden Roots of Critical Psychology
Understanding the Impact of Locke, Shaftesbury and Reid
- Michael Billig - Loughborough University, UK
Psychology
In the early modern period, thinkers like the earl of Shaftesbury and Thomas Reid reacted against Locke's cognitive psychology in ways that were surprisingly modern, if not post-modern. However, Shaftesbury and Reid have been virtually written out of psychology's history. It is now time to recognize the great originality of their psychological thinking. Writing in a non-technical style, Michael Billig seeks to overturn the dominant views of psychology's history. In so doing, he gives a fascinating account of the times, bringing psychology's hidden past vividly back to life.
Insightful and entertaining, The Hidden Roots of Critical Psychology is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students studying conceptual and historical issues in psychology. The book's highly original argument should also appeal to psychologists more generally and to specialists in the history of ideas.
"Billig (Loughborough Univ., UK) provides a fascinating, thought-provoking history of the early origins of contemporary critical psychology. The author characterizes critical psychology as an approach that assumes the mind is socially and historically constructed. He contrasts this with mainstream cognitive psychology, in which the mind is reduced to the processes of individual thought. Although this debate is commonly viewed as having a short history (origins in the mid-20th century), Billig traces its origins back to the early-modern period (17th century), when John Locke's conception of a cognitive-based psychology first appeared. Locke's individualistic perspective was challenged by the socially based conceptions of the Earl of Shaftsbury (Anthony Ashley Cooper, Locke's foster son) and Thomas Reid. This book is especially valuable because it uncovers hidden lines of intellectual influence, which thus challenge assumptions about the founding of psychological schools of thought. In his conclusion, Billig points to the need to revise the history of psychology and to bring social and historical inquiry back into psychology. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, and faculty."
