by Morton Hunt
That, in a nutshell, is what has been happening to psychology. Ever since the decline and fall of behaviorism, psychology has been fissioning into specialties—and yet in recent decades, especially in the past two, a stunning and invaluable reaction has been taking place. Under the pressure of developments in other behavioral sciences, as well as neurobiology and computer science, a number of psychology departments and special institutes within universities have created interdisciplinary programs aimed at a larger and deeper understanding of the human mind. Fission is being countered by intellectual fusion.
From here on, accordingly, we will not follow a single chronological story but will look at what has happened in each of six principal fields of psychology and in the psychotherapies. We will see and appreciate the specialization that has advanced their work—and threatened to choke them—and the synthesis that is currently making psychology an extraordinarily exciting and illuminating science, a true science of the mind. Whether this course will result in a new grand theory, a unified theory of mind, or only several interlocking theories remains to be seen.
Finally, in chapters 18 and 19, we will briefly look at a number of other aspects of contemporary psychology that could not be given fuller treatment without unduly fatiguing the reader as well as the author.
