ABSTRACT
The idea of facilitating English-speaking psychologists’ access to French traditions in developmental research is coming in an interesting political context: As the most visible curtain separating scientists—the Iron Curtain between East and West—is disappearing, the less obvious ones, such as the nationalistic prejudices, are becoming more visible. One can imagine an American reader finding that French psychologists have someone at the level of Piaget or Vygotsky, whose name is not very difficult to pronounce, but who is very difficult to find in American referencing systems. At the time that it is becoming more important to push the right buttons than to talk to other people, the reader checks the main manuals of child psychology, the handbooks of infancy research, or the reviews of human development; or activates his or her personal computer to look for the name of Henri Wallon in available referencing systems, but in vain. It is difficult to say whether a similar experience happened to the American editor of the present volume and motivated him to look for another editorial assignment. However, he certainly has the reputation of a polyhistoric psychologist, who passionately visits allied disciplines of psychology, lifts curtains among disciplines and cultures, and may lead the reader to unexpected areas of arts, engineering, biology, anthropology, or history.
