The individual and history

An introduction

pp. 3-8

in: Klaus F. Riegel, Psychology of development and history, Berlin, Springer, 1976

Abstract

The relationship between the individual and society has long been the concern of philosophers, sociologists, and psychologists. The more sophisticated and appropriate question of the relationship between the individual's development and societal changes is about as old as the first problem but has not been raised with the same persistency. Not all scholars have directed their attention to the growth of the individual and to the growth of society and very few, indeed, to the interactive development of both. Undoubtedly, such disregard restricts their interpretations in a serious manner.