Table Of ContentTHE CHALLENGES OF CULTURAL
PSYCHOLOGY
This book considers cultural psychology from historical, theoretical, and epistemological
perspectives, building an understanding of cultural psychology as a human science and moving
beyond the nature– culture dichotomy. The unique collection of chapters seeks to advance the
field of cultural psychology by reviving its historical legacies and arguing for its social responsibility
in future historical developments.
It considers European legacies for cultural psychology as developed by leading figures such
as Giambattista Vico, Wilhelm Wundt, Wilhelm Dilthey, and Ernst Cassirer in order to provide
insights into a long tradition of thinking from a cultural psychology perspective. The book
discusses historical pathways in the rise and repression of cultural psychology and its different
historical forms, arguing for the necessity of decolonizing psychology, securing a place for culture
in it, and developing an epistemology suited to humankind’s meaning- making processes in mutual
shaping of psyche and culture. It provides an integrative and historical understanding of the
subject and uses the diversity and heterogeneity within the field to offer critical reflections on its
achievements. The thoroughly international group of contributors brings diverse analyses of self,
body, emotions, culture, and society and considers the future of cultural psychology.
The volume is a stimulating read for scholars and students of cultural and theoretical psychology
and related areas including philosophy, anthropology, and history.
Gordana Jovanović is Professor of Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of
Belgrade, Serbia. She is committed to psychology understood as a human science closely related
to other human sciences and philosophy. Her research is theoretically driven, epistemologically
reflected and argues for the necessity of historical foundations and the critical responsibility of
psychology.
Lars Allolio- Näcke is manager and scientific coordinator at the Zentralinstitut “Anthropologie
der Religion(en)” at Friedrich-A lexander Universität, Erlangen, Germany. His main interests
include philosophy of subjectivity, historical anthropology, cultural psychology, psychology of
religion, and philosophy of science.
Carl Ratner has been developing a new theory and methodology for four decades under the title
“macro cultural psychology.” Ratner emphasizes the political character of culture and psychology
and uses it to develop social and psychological enrichment. Ratner has lived in and conducted
research in China, India, and Saudi Arabia.
THE CHALLENGES
OF CULTURAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Historical Legacies and Future
Responsibilities
Edited by Gordana Jovanovic’,
Lars Allolio-N äcke, and Carl Ratner
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 selection and editorial matter, Gordana Jovanović, Lars Allolio- Näcke and
Carl Ratner; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Gordana Jovanović, Lars Allolio- Näcke and Carl Ratner to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1 -1 38-6 7721- 0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1 -1 38-6 7722- 7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1 -3 15-5 5966- 7 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Out of House Publishing
To the memory of Jerome Bruner, in recognition of his enduring search for a
proper psychology of human beings
CONTENTS
Notes on contributors xi
Introduction 1
Gordana Jovanovi
ć
PART 1
Cultural psychology as a human science 13
1 Cultural psychology as a human science 15
Gordana Jovanovi
ć
2 Natureculture in a transformative worldview: Moving beyond
the “interactionist consensus” 37
Anna Stetsenko
PART 2
Reviving historical legacies for cultural psychology 57
3 Nature unveiling herself before science: The relationship
between mind and culture in the perspective of
Giambattista Vico 59
Luca Tateo
viii Contents
4 Völkerpsychologie as cultural psychology: The place of culture
in Wundt’s psychological project 75
Saulo de Freitas Araujo
5 Wilhelm Dilthey’s conception of a descriptive and
comprehensive psychology 85
Hans- Ulrich Lessing
6 Ernst Cassirer’s cultural theory: Culture as symbolical practice 98
Jan Weyand
PART 3
Vicissitudes of cultural psychology 109
7 Roots and rise of cultural psychology 111
Lars Allolio- Näcke
8 Culture and personality: A once and future research program? 125
Christian G. Allesch
9 Bruner’s lectures: Cultural psychology in statu nascendi 137
William R. Woodward
10 Ernst E. Boesch and his symbolic action theory 157
Lars Allolio- Näcke
11 The repression of cultural psychology in the history
of psychology 169
Gordana Jovanovi
ć
PART 4
Epistemological challenges of cultural
psychology 187
12 Contingent universals as the expression of a culture 189
Rom Harré and Jean- Pierre Llored
13 The place of culture in psychology: A social constructionist
standpoint 207
Kenneth J. Gergen
Contents ix
14 Light through a cultural lens: Decolonizing the history of
psychology and resilience 220
Wade E. Pickren
15 Narrative psychology as cultural psychology 237
Csaba Pléh
16 Toward cultural (African) psychology: Links, challenges,
and possibilities 250
Kopano Ratele
PART 5
Cultural psychology of self, body, culture
and society 269
17 The self in Japanese culture from an embodied perspective 271
Shogo Tanaka
18 The moving body 284
Elisa Krause- Kjær, Jensine I. Nedergaard, and Jaan Valsiner
19 Toward a Vygotskian analysis of emotions: Theoretical
and methodological bases for a critical social psychology 301
Gisele Toassa
20 Aesthetics and cultural psychology 318
Christian G. Allesch
21 Let one person’s tears not be infectious: Efik proverbs
as emotion regulation exemplars 337
Vivian Dzokoto, Eyo Mensah, Eunsoo Choi, and Melissa
Washington- Nortey
22 Cultural- historical hyperobjects 357
Cathrine Hasse
23 The genesis of macro cultural psychology’s culture theory
from traditional cultural psychology 368
Carl Ratner
