S(t)imulating a Social Psychology
G.H. Mead & the Reality of the Social Object

By Olle Westlund
December 2003
Uppsala University Press
ISBN: 91-554-5773-8
211 pages, 6 ½" x 9 ½"
$62.50 Paper Original

---

This is a Ph.D. dissertation. Through considered the hub around which social psychology developed the philosophical premises in G.H. Mead's work has but rarely been appreciated. In recent years, therefore, several attempts have been made at recovering the social vision of this scholar in order to counteract a reductionist tendency in our understanding of the human individual. In this fashion, social psychologists seem to be looking at the past in search for a genuinely social psychology with which to move forward. To do this, questions regarding the nature of science and sociality must be addressed and given answers that are consistent with one another. This is required from any scientific social psychologist returning to Mead for support. This examination of G.H. Mead's concepts of science and sociality indicates that such consistency is not to be hoped for. His vision of science is not on par with his vision of sociality. Thus, an attempt at a scientific social psychology based on Mead seems to force the social psychologist to shut one eye.

Sociology
Studia Sociologica Upsaliensia No. 50

Return to Coronet Books main page