You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
William Sahakian begins his historical review with a brief sketch of the precursors of modern psychology from the ancient Greeks to modern philosophical psychology. He next sketches the development of British psychology. With the third chapter, using the “university approach,” he outlines the development of psychology at the major universities in England, Germany, America, Austria, and France, and then, even more briefly, at Soviet, Oriental, and Latin American universities.
Sahakian feels that the book's “distinctiveness lies in its (1) university or school approach; (2) quotations where deemed necessary from original sources; (3) summary overview followed by an analysis in depth; and (4) extended scope.”
As to his first point, the university approach, I cannot see that it gives more insight or understanding to the development of psychological systems of thought than the older type of organization according to schools of psychology. As to his second point, the quotations from original sources are fine, but there could be more of them. The “analysis in depth” is very uneven and at times disjinted. Of necessity, everything is brief because so much is covered. However, even with brevity one must be accurate. Not all things are of equal importance, and therefore they should not be given equal space. For example, the summary of Freud is good in spite of its brevity and clearly outlines Freud's main contributions, whereas that of Gestalt psychology is not accurate nor fair in its space allotment. For example, Abraham Maslow is incorrectly considered a member of the Gestalt school. Perls and his school of “Gestalt therapy” misuse the word “Gestalt” and really have nothing to do with Wertheimer's system of thought. In the discussion of field theory a number of Lewin's students who made no real contributions are given at least as much space as, for example, Tamara Dembo (given one sentence), who worked with Lewin extensively and published much important material, especially t