Psychology

social self-understanding on the reasons for action in the conduct of everyday life

Klaus Holzkamp

pp. 233-341

in: Klaus Holzkamp, Psychology from the standpoint of the subject, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Abstract

The title "Psychology: Social Self-Understanding on the Reasons for Action in the Conduct of Everyday Life" does not intend to put forward some new type of psychology in addition to those already existing. Instead, it argues that psychology in its entirety, as it has developed historically, needs to put itself under such a motto if it wants to fulfil its function within the scientific community of offering a particular access to our experiences and actions. This simultaneously maintains, ex negativo, that the prevailing psychology is unable to master this task; its research misses human problems of life and is incapable of contributing anything substantial to our knowledge in human and social sciences.