The Case for Pragmatic Psychology
The Case for Pragmatic Psychology
Web Site
The interested reader is urged to contact the author and join a Pragmatic Psychology Dialogue Group at the following web site: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~dfishman/
“At long last, a tightly reasoned, thoroughly grounded treatise showing that complex social programs can be understood far more profoundly and usefully than past mindsets have allowed.”
–Lisbeth B. Schorr, author of Common Purpose: Strengthening Families and Neighborhoods to Rebuild America
“Fishman creates a new paradigm for advancing clinical science. Every mental health professional aspiring to be accountable and a scientist practitioner in their work should be aware of the ideas in this readable and entertaining book.”
–David H. Barlow, editor of Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders
“Daniel Fishman cuts through rhetoric with clear writing and a razor-sharp wit. The chapter on education is like the welcome beam of a lighthouse in a fog.”
–Maurice J. Elias, coauthor of Social Problem Solving: Interventions in the Schools
“Fishman makes the case for a pragmatic psychology in unusually lucid and forceful prose. This book should be read not only by professional psychologists but by anyone interested in the future of mind-related science.”
–John Horgan, author of The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age
“Fishman’s liberating insights will free his readers to set aside the intellectual quandaries that plague philosophers and psychologists at the end of the 20th century, and turn back with confidence to the practice of their work.”
–Stephen Toulmin, author of Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity
“As we try to steer a course through the public policy debates of the 21st century, Fishman’s pragmatic psychology for enhancing human services provides a far-reaching new resource for meeting this challenge.”
–Pat Schroeder, President and CEO, Association of American Publishers. Former Congresswoman from Colorado.
About the Book
A cursory survey of the field of psychology reveals raging debate among psychologists about the methods, goals, and significance of the discipline, psychology’s own version of the science wars. The turn-of-the-century unification of the discipline has given way to a proliferation of competing approaches, a postmodern carnival of theories and methods that calls into question the positivist psychological tradition.
Bridging the gap between the traditional and the novel, Daniel B. Fishman proposes an invigorated, hybrid model for the practice of psychology-a radical, pragmatic reinvention of psychology based on databases of rigorous, solution-focused case studies. In The Case for Pragmatic Psychology, Fishman demonstrates how pragmatism returns psychology to a focus on contextualized knowledge about particular individuals, groups, organizations, and communities in specific situations, sensitive to the complexities and ambiguities of the real world. Fishman fleshes out his theory by applying pragmatic psychology to two contemporary psychosocial dilemmas –the controversies surrounding the “psychotherapy crisis” generated by the growth of managed care, and the heated culture wars over educational reform.
Moving with ease from the theoretical to the nuts and bolts of actual psychological intervention programs, Fishman proffers a strong argument for a new kind of psychology with far-reaching implications for enhancing human services and restructuring public policy.
Instead of bickering over whose psychological paradigms will provide the best general theory of human behavior, argues Daniel B. Fishman, psychologists “need to focus our energy and attention on substantive issues, such as addressing the major psychosocial problems of our times.” The Case for Pragmatic Psychology is a call to arms urging those psychologists who have already adopted a pragmatic approach to their profession to organize and share data with one another so they can fulfill their goals more efficiently. Fishman grounds his argument in a historical consideration of the trend toward psychological theorization and the movements in postmodern philosophy–particularly the recovered interest in pragmatism–that challenge that tendency, as well as an elaboration of the pragmatic case study method. While primarily of professional interest, Fishman’s book is worth considering by anyone concerned with developing concrete agendas for social change.
List Price: $ 24.00
Price: $ 20.00
Anonymous said,
Wrote on August 5, 2011 @ 11:45 pm
The field of Psychology is indebted to Daniel Fishman.,
Students enter the study of psychology with the belief that psychology is a discipline that can contribute to the benefit of humanity and the betterment of society. They expect to find the accumulated wisdom of thousands of investigators working for over a hundred years of effort to answer the questions and solve the problems of everyday living that burden their existence. They usually come away from their studies sadly disappointed that there were no real answers and that their only hope is a faint promise that a scientific psychology will some day in the distant future have the answers for which they seek. They then turn or return to pop psychology where at least the authors attempt to give answers (superficial as these may be) to the pressing problems that trouble them. If we as a discipline have the courage and vision to go down the path that Daniel Fishman has charted for our profession in his Case for a Pragmatic Psychology, we will finally be able to face our students with integrity, and ultimately with the real answers to the problems they seek assistance in understanding and solving. In this monumental undertaking, Fishman has challenged the myths and self-serving presumptions of the entire discipline of basic and applied psychology, and he has done so with an argument that is both historically and philosophically cogent, and that articulates a concrete alternative research paradigm — the pragmatic case study. He offers us a vision of a discipline of psychology that is relevant, meaningful, practical, and theoretically sound, and that contributes to the public well-being and interest in the manner in which we have long promised to do, but have rarely actually done. This book will threaten those who are entrenched in the academic-scientific power structure and bureaucracy, and is sure to earn their wrath. The public and professional debate that will ensue is exactly what the field needs to arouse itself from its auto-hypnotic, self-satisfied, scientistic slumber. If the public interest, and the well-being of the individuals in our society are the criteria against which his proposal is evaluated, the outcome of the debate is assured; and the 21st century will be the century of a pragmatic psychology. Of course, only time will tell if that will be the case. In the meantime, the discipline of psychology is indebted to Daniel Fishman for tackling this monumental endeavor, and for having charted a course for all of us to work together to see the promise of psychology is ultimately realized. –Ronald B. Miller, author of The Restoration of Dialogue: Readings in the Philosophy of Clinical Psychology.
Was this review helpful to you?
|