In: A Critical Introduction to Psychology ISBN: 978-1-53616-491-
Editor: Robert K. Beshara © 2019 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Chapter 1
TOWARDS A PLURIVERSAL PSYCHOLOGY
Robert K. Beshara*, PhD
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,
Northern New Mexico College,
Española, NM, US
Psychology literally means the logia of psykhē, which can be translated
as the discourse of psyche along the lines of the linguistic turn (cf. Parker
2002). While psychologists study psyche, critical psychologists study
psychology, and psyche qua subjectivity, in an effort to question taken-for-
granted notions in mainstream (Euro-American) psychology, such as the
‘birth’ of psychology as a scientific discipline in 1879, which is when the
first experimental lab was established in Leipzig, Germany by Wilhelm
Wundt (the ‘father’ of psychology). This historical cut signifies the
discipline’s bifurcation from philosophy (the ‘mother’ of psychology),
which is looked down upon by psychologists for its inability to back up its
claims empirically since it lacks a positivist scientific method.
While psychology has come a long way methodologically from this
simplistic (or scientistic) way of thinking, “physics envy” (Fish 2000)
- Corresponding Author’s Email: [email protected].