ABSTRACT

This is a critical, personalized approach to reframing the discipline of psychology through a singular narrative in the form of a memoir written by a successful research psychologist.

In this book we follow Martin’s unique career, which has allowed him to understand and adopt different perspectives and ways of approaching psychology, from working in applied areas like educational and counseling psychology to more specialized areas like theory and history of psychology. His journey through and within the field describes his movement away from scientifically based psychology, which views teachings and interventions to be primarily underwritten by hard scientific evidence. Martin exposes the flaws in this approach and highlights the importance of focusing on the study of persons in their life contexts over the use of aggregated group results to ensure that the discipline survives and flourishes.

This is an impactful and universally applicable book with valuable insights for students and scholars of psychology today, particularly those studying history of psychology, theoretical psychology, and philosophical psychology.

chapter 1|12 pages

My Life in Psychology

An Introduction

chapter 2|14 pages

Early Life and Education

Questions and Ambivalences

chapter 3|11 pages

My First Academic Appointment

Survival and Credibility

chapter 4|22 pages

Academic Success and Personal Dissonance

My Theoretical Turn

chapter 5|25 pages

Finding a Home

In Full Pursuit of Persons

chapter 6|18 pages

Retrospective

Reaching for a Psychology of Persons