ABSTRACT
It is sometimes said that the truly creative work in any discipline takes place at the borders-by those who understand the conventions governing the interior but who also understand something else. It is at the borders that we also find individuals who are sufficiently free from the tyranny of the normal-the pattern of expectations, obligations and swift sanctions within the core of most disciplines-that they can risk innovation. Fred Newman is just such a border dweller. Newman is deeply conversant with traditional paradigms of psychological inquiry, but with other things as well. For him, such inquiry must first be seen within the context of the philosophical tradition from which it was spawned, and must simultaneously be sensitized to the challenging transformations within philosophy since the period of psychological inception. Further, for Newman it makes little sense to pursue psychology without situating it within the political and social order. Again, the political and social context giving psychology its start in life has radically changed, and these changes should be reflected by transformations within the field. Newman’s immersion in philosophical, political and social deliberations is finally complemented by a deep dwelling in the realm of aesthetics, and particularly the dramatic arts. For Newman, a psychology that fails to be informed by the expressive, the passionate, the ludic, and the communicative dimensions of aesthetic life is something much less than a full psychology.
