ABSTRACT
A value-relevant, socially involved social psychology must be concerned with this sense of lack, and with ways in which people may try to cope with it—desirable or undesirable according to our present judgment. Science involves the systematic distrust of wishful thinking. In the human studies, there are areas that obviously belong to the natural sciences; neuroscience with its links to experience and behavior is a clear case. There are also areas that belong to the interpretative humanities; psychobiography and psychohistory provide somewhat more debatable instances. The opportunities and the threats all hinge upon human understanding and human action. Participating in the long-term human project of self-understanding is a heady enterprise. Special emphasis to the area in which the causal/explanatory approach of natural science and the interpretative approach of the humanities intersect, which arises as a central focus for human inquiry because of the reflective, self-aware nature of human selfhood.
