Abstract

In this the centennial year [1992] of the American Psychological Association one should expect that the celebration would emphasize psychology's contributions to knowledge of the human psyche. This paper suggests that there are considerations tempering the view that in the future, as in the past, psychology's onward and upward course will continue. One of these considerations is the fact that in the post World War II era those who have entered the field have little or no sense of intellectual identification with psychology's past, especially in regard to some great psychologists whose work should have but still does not have a place in the so-called current mainstream. Another consideration is the inability of American psychology to confront the fact that it is just that: an American psychology. Not until that fact is directly confronted will we do justice to the relationships between the characteristics of any psychology and the cultural-national-societal context from which it emerged.