Well, the last book I read was “Sobre la condición social de la Psicología” of the Chilean epistemologist Carlos Perez. And I choose it because it was the last book I read, not for personal preference but for “obligation”. I must read it or I’d failed in the test.
It’s an interesting book that talks us about the development of psychology since it was established as an Institution. The author talks us about how this discipline has been change trough the years, how the study object has been modified and how the different currents in psychology can be understood as human constructions and, according to that, say that the kind of knowledge that produced psychology depends of the currents and, the social conditions in a specific time.
This is a very important thing if you are studying psychology and if you don’t, this is important if you want to know a little bit of psychology. Say that psychology is a human construction has a several implications:
- All kind of knowledge in psychology depends of the perspective that you are seeing it.
- Psychology doesn’t have the “truth” there are only theories (more or less supported).
- As a construction has a beginning and therefore could have an end.
Psychology talks about the subjectivity of its specific time (in a sociohistorical context).
If someone, everyone, read this, that person could think that psychology is not necessary or is an invention and, in that way says that psychology doesn’t have purpose to be. There can’t be more wrong thought. The same thing we’d say about history or philosophy. In opposition to this statement, I‘d say that there is no more needed thing that psychology, it allows us to live in balance with are feelings, thoughts and emotions.