Particulars and Universals in Clinical and Developmental Psychology: Critical Reflections - A book honoring Roger Bibace

Meike Watzlawik · Alina Kriebel · Jaan Valsiner

12/2015 · IAP

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What sparks a psychologist’s interest in a certain phenomenon? Is it a symptom, a syndrome, a treatment, the usual, the exceptional, the group, the individual? An epistemologist, for example, focuses on the group and delivers group results. The clinician has to focus on the patient, although the patient may be perceived as one of a group (e.g., all patients with the same disease). The patient usually focuses on the clinician, but can take other opinions into account; especially, when the clinician is not considered to be the only authority. These dynamics – observable in therapy as well as in research – are critically reflected in this book, not only highlighting differences, but also commonalities individuals share: They all filter information and concentrate on certain aspects according to their socialization. They all have different expectations and can, yet, all deal with the same objective. Communication and building relationships seem to be vital – this book aims to support this quest by moving from the universal to the particular.

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Jaan Valsiner is Niels Bohr Professor of Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University, Denmark and Professor of Psychology and English, Clark University, USAHe is a cultural psychologist with a consistently developmental axiomatic base that is brought to the analyses of any psychological or social phenomena, who has been a visiting professor in Japan, Australia, Estonia, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. He is also founding editor (1995) of the Sage journal, "Culture & Psychology". He has published many books, including "The Guided Mind "(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), "Culture and Human Development "(London: Sage Publications, 2000), and "Comparative Study of Human Cultural Development "(Madrid: Fundacion Infancia y Aprendizaje, 2001). He has edited (with Kevin Connolly) the "Handbook of Developmental Psychology "(London: Sage Publications, 2003) as well as the "Cambridge Handbook of Socio-cultural Psychology "(2007, with Alberto Rosa). He has established the new journal on individual case analyses "International Journal of Idiographic Science "(2005, www.valsiner.com) and is the editor of "Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Sciences "and "From Past to Future: Annals of Innovations in Psychology "(from 2007, with Transaction Publishers).In 1995, he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Prize in Germany for his inter-disciplinary work on human development.