Negotiating Boundaries

Reviews the book, Psychology's territories: Historical and contemporary perspectives from different disciplines by Mitchell G. Ash and Thomas Sturm (see record 2007-05529-000). This book will be a "must have" for anyone interested in the history of psychology. It is a publication of the Interdisciplinary Working Group on Psychological Thought and Practice in Historical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, sponsored by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The late Paul Baltes (1939-2006) was instrumental in the formation of the working group, and he points out in his foreword that the history of a discipline is not simply internal but also involves "social, institutional, and professional contexts" (p. xi). It is these contexts that provide the framework for much of the material in this volume. Of particular value is the book's interdisciplinary nature. This is not just a book by psychologists about psychology but includes contributions from historians, philosophers, and neuroscientists as well. The sparks generated by the friction between the representatives of different disciplines really do illuminate the issues considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)