The History of Introspection Revisited

Abstract

The traditional view of the history of introspection can be found in introductory textbooks on psychology and in textbooks on the history of psychology. Introspection was the main method used by British philosophers of mind prior to the establishment of modern psychology but it was not without its critics. E. B. Titchener was an Englishman who had studied philosophy in Oxford prior to traveling to Leipzig to do his PhD in experimental psychology. Titchener was very much at odds with the mainstream of American psychology, partly because of his elitist Oxford background. Psychologists with little experience of the history of psychology might think that once a mythical account has been exposed by scholarly research, it is unlikely to survive. S. G. Brush’s juxtaposition of “history” and “myth” points to the more subversive aspects of history. If myth helps to reinforce a social rule, then exposing it as myth can help to undermine the rule.

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