An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Human Mind ― Subjectivity, Science and Experiences in Change

One of the main aims of contemporary psychology is to understand a person's explicit and implicit ways of thinking and acting. In light of this, it may seem like the ultimate paradox that psychology is currently overflowing with brain concepts belonging to the external, visible, brain-world and that neuroscientists are poised to become the new experts on human conduct. Innovating Psychology shows that, in order to create a psychology that is truly innovative, psychologists must not only ask questions about how their conceptions of human beings and psychological phenomena came into being, but should also see themselves as co-creators of the mystery they seek to solve.

Looking at the human being as a being with a biological body and unique subjective experiences, living in a reciprocal relationship with its sociocultural and historical environment, the book will provide examples and theories that show the necessity of an innovating, interdisciplinary psychology that manages to adapt its theory and methods to environmental, biological and subjective changes. To this end, the book will provide an innovating psychology that offers a broad kaleidoscope of perspectives about the relations between the history of psychology, as a scientific discipline oriented to interpret and explain subject and subjectivity phenomenon, and the social construction of subjectified experience.

This unique and timely book should be of great interest to critical and cultural psychologists and theorists; clinical psychologists and psychiatrists; sociologists of culture and science; anthropologists; philosophers; historians; and scholars working with social and health theories. It should also be essential reading for lawyers, advocates, and defenders of human rights.

Line Joranger is Associate Professor at the Department of Health and Social Sciences at the University College of Southeast Norway.