Contemporary German Psychology as a “Cultural Science”

At the International Congress of Psychology in 1926 one of the symposia was concerned with the problems of " understanding and explaining in psychology" (L. Binswanger, Th. Erismann, G. Ewald, E. Spranger). In this last chapter we shall deal with these problems, that is, with certain aspects of "geisteswissenschaftliche Psychologie" ¹ (cultural science psychology). Only a few of the views developed in this field can be discussed here. In this field, more than anywhere else, the historian has to record controversial matters. The discussion of "understanding" and "explaining," which involves a radical reconsideration of the "foundations" of psychology, convinces us more than anything else that there may be some justification in speaking of a "crisis in psychology."