Re-envisioning Theoretical Psychology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Toward a Poetics of the Other: New Directions in Post-scientific Psychology

   • Mark Freeman

   Pages 1-24

3. An Historical Turn for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology

   • Jeff Sugarman

   Pages 25-48

4. An Intersectionality for Theoretical Psychology?

   • Kathleen L. Slaney

   Pages 49-74

5. A Critical Reframing of Theoretical Psychology as Maternal: Strengthening Psychology’s Inter- and Transdisciplinary Identity for the Twenty-First Century

   • Mary Beth Quaranta Morrissey

   Pages 75-109

6. A Role for the History of Psychology in Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology

   • Saulo de Freitas Araujo

   Pages 111-129

7. The Indispensable Subject of Psychology: Theory, Subjectivity and the Specter of Inner Life

   • Suzanne R. Kirschner

   Pages 131-159

8. Testing the Limits: Theoretical Psychology Re-envisioned in Light of Boundary-Pushing Trends in Theoretical Physics, Philosophy of Biology, and Philosophy of Psychology

   • Barbara S. Held

   Pages 161-188

9. Vertical and Horizontal Development in Theoretical Psychology

   • Lisa M. Osbeck

   Pages 189-207

10. Toward a Metaphysical Empirical Psychology

    • Gregg Henriques

    Pages 209-237

11. A New Wave of Thinking in Psychology: Relationality Versus Abstractionism

    • Brent D. Slife, Eric A. Ghelfi

    Pages 239-271

12. Beyond Reflexivity in Theoretical Psychology: From Philosophy to the Psychological Humanities

    • Thomas Teo

    Pages 273-288

13. Back Matter

    Pages 289-297

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This volume presents a re-envisioning of the field of theoretical psychology and offers unique visions for its present and future from leaders of North American philosophical psychology. It contends that theoretical psychology has reached ‘middle-age’ and must consider new directions to renew its growth. Rooted in a range of research traditions and the intellectual biographies of its authors, it paves the way toward this necessary revitalization of the content, activities, responsibilities, and hopes of theoretical psychology. 

The authors situate their analyses in the context of the increasing gap between alternative and mainstream and between the discipline and the profession of psychology. They demonstrate that changes in society, culture and technology, the internationalization of the psychological humanities, and the cross-fertilization of intellectual innovations from other disciplines now afford possibilities for new orientations in theoretical psychology. 


The volume aims to do justice to psychological topics, human beings, and the intellectual problems that psychologists encounter, while also providing space for (meta)theoretical engagement, often neglected in the discipline. Together, the chapters in this collection make the case that a renewal of the discipline and practice of psychology is a task that is best accomplished collectively, and, despite significant disagreements, in solidarity. 

• theoretical psychology
• historical psychology
• APA Division 24
• Post-Scientific Psychology
• the human condition
• Theoretical Physics
• abstractionism
• intersectionality
• meta-theoretical perspective
• Psychology as a Science
• Character Adaptation Systems Theory
• Dualism
• Ontology
• Psychotherapy
• Theorophobia

• Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada

  Thomas Teo

Thomas Teo is Professor of Psychology in the Historical, Theoretical, and Critical Studies of Psychology Program at York University, Canada. He has been active in the advancement of theoretical, critical, and historical psychology throughout his professional career. His research has been meta-psychological to provide a more reflexive understanding of the foundations, trajectories, and possibilities of human subjectivity.  

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