Introduction

Terwee

pp. 1-4

in: Terwee (ed), Hermeneutics in psychology and psychoanalysis, Berlin, Springer, 1990

Abstract

The aim of this introduction is to provide an overview of the philosophical and methodological perspectives common in present-day psychology. Discussions between these perspectives may lead us to the theoretical problems of the foundations of psychology that form the subject of the first chapter. To start with, a few words will be said about the tension between two families of approaches in psychology (and related social and cultural sciences): the empirical-analytical and the empirical-hermeneutical approach. The major part of this book will consist of discussions between representatives of these approaches. What exactly is to be understood by empirical-analytical psychology and by hermeneutics?