Case for Pragmatic Psychology

Name: Case for Pragmatic Psychology
Price: 26.7 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780814726754

ISBN-10: 0814726755

ISBN-13: 9780814726754

Edition: 1999

Authors: Daniel B. Fishman

List price: $27.00

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Web SiteThe interested reader is urged to contact the author and join a Pragmatic Psychology Dialogue Group at the following web site: "At long last, a tightly reasoned, thoroughly grounded treatise showing that complex social programs can be understood far more profoundly and usefully than past mindsets have allowed."--Lisbeth B. Schorr, author ofCommon Purpose: Strengthening Families and Neighborhoods to Rebuild America"Fishman creates a new paradigm for advancing clinical science. Every mental health professional aspiring to be accountable and a scientist practitioner in their work should be aware of the ideas in this readable and entertaining book."--David H. Barlow, editor ofClinical… Handbook of Psychological Disorders"Daniel Fishman cuts through rhetoric with clear writing and a razor-sharp wit. The chapter on education is like the welcome beam of a lighthouse in a fog."--Maurice J. Elias, coauthor ofSocial Problem Solving: Interventions in the Schools"Fishman makes the case for a pragmatic psychology in unusually lucid and forceful prose. This book should be read not only by professional psychologists but by anyone interested in the future of mind-related science."--John Horgan, author ofThe End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age"Fishman's liberating insights will free his readers to set aside the intellectual quandaries that plague philosophers and psychologists at the end of the 20th century, and turn back with confidence to the practice of their work."--Stephen Toulmin, author ofCosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity"As we try to steer a course through the public policy debates of the 21st century, Fishman's pragmatic psychology for enhancing human services provides a far-reaching new resource for meeting this challenge."--Pat Schroeder, President and CEO, Association of American Publishers. Former Congresswoman from Colorado.About the BookA cursory survey of the field of psychology reveals raging debate among psychologists about the methods, goals, and significance of the discipline, psychology's own version of the science wars. The turn-of-the-century unification of the discipline has given way to a proliferation of competing approaches, a postmodern carnival of theories and methods that calls into question the positivist psychological tradition.Bridging the gap between the traditional and the novel, Daniel B. Fishman proposes an invigorated, hybrid model for the practice of psychologya radical, pragmatic reinvention of psychology based on databases of rigorous, solution-focused case studies. InThe Case for Pragmatic Psychology, Fishman demonstrates how pragmatism returns psychology to a focus on contextualized knowledge about particular individuals, groups, organizations, and communities in specific situations, sensitive to the complexities and ambiguities of the real world. Fishman fleshes out his theory by applying pragmatic psychology to two contemporary psychosocial dilemmas the controversies surrounding the "psychotherapy crisis" generated by the growth of managed care, and the heated culture wars over educational reform.Moving with ease from the theoretical to the nuts and bolts of actual psychological intervention programs, Fishman proffers a strong argument for a new kind of psychology with far-reaching implications for enhancing human services and restructuring public policy.

Book details

List price: $27.00
Copyright year: 1999
Publisher: New York University Press
Publication date: 1/1/1999
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 414
Size: 6.00" wide x 9.25" long x 1.00" tall
Weight: 1.232
Language: English



List of Figures and Tables


Foreword



Preface


Acknowledgments


Introduction: A Better Way to Help by Reinventing Psychology


Turning Mainstream Psychology Upside Down


The Emergence of the Pragmatic Paradigm from Postmodernism


Supporting the Beleaguered Practitioner


Two Faces of Psychology: "Nature" versus "Culture"


A Reader's Guide



History



1600 to the Early 1960s: Psychology and Positivism--A Marriage Made in Enlightenment Heaven


Origins: 1600 to 1879


Pendulum Swings in History


Psychology Comes of Age: 1879 to the Early 1960s



The 1960s and Beyond: The Postmodern Invasion


Psychologists Proliferate


Psychological Topics Proliferate


Psychological Methods Proliferate



Philosophy



"Postpositivism": Revolution within the Family


Targeted Hits


Expanding the Critique


The End of Science?



The Dialectic: Putting It All Together


The Players


Not So Fast


Boiling It Down to Three Paradigms



Transcending the Dialectic: The Emergence of Postmodern Pragmatism


The Family Tree


Pragmatists Weigh In


A Balinese Cockfight and Schizophrenia


On to the Case Study Method



Method



The Pragmatic Case Study: Psychology's Tool for Enhancing Human Services


Addressing Psychosocial Problems


Measuring the Bottom Line: Program Evaluation


Collaborating with Clients: Community Psychology


"What Works and Why We Have So Little of It"



Nuts and Bolts: The Pragmatic Case Study Method


Let the Games Begin


Quality Control


Linking Frameworks


From Single Case to Database



Application



Psychology and Psychotherapy: From "House of Cards" to "House of Cases"


An End to Our "Era of Good Feeling"


The Battle


A Pragmatic Proposal


A Case in Point



Educational Reform: From "Culture Wars" and "Silver Bullets" to the Real Classroom


The Factory Model


The Combatants Square Off


Many Promising Reform Ideas


Ideas Are Cheap, Successful Cases Are Not



Implications



Manifesto for a Pragmatic Psychology


Prologue: A Call for Pluralism


Pragmatists Unite! An Action Plan for Making Case-based Psychology a Reality


Vision: Staying in Touch with Our Roots


The Challenge Ahead


Notes


References


Index


About the Author