Epilogue

In this book, we have approached the history of psychology from the perspectives of globalization, culture, and the individual. The history of psychological inquiry before the establishment of psychology as a unique and separate science and professional practice covers centuries of ideas and actions revolving around foundational questions. Some of these questions are still being addressed and expanded—revised answers are part of the present and future of psychology. Some of these questions, which we have addressed in our treatment of the history of psychology, include: What is the relationship between the mind or psychological processes and the brain? How do we learn most efficiently and effectively? What is the best way(s) to live out our individual and collective lives? How can we best address ignorance, poverty, disease, aggression, and war, the extinction of other species, and the wasteful consumption of our natural resources?

Psychology, as both a science and a profession, has evolved from philosophical and biological foundations. We identified and discussed some of the foundational ideas, events, and persons that have contributed to each of these two foundations. Each of the schools of psychology focused upon issues of subject matter, method(s) of acquiring knowledge, research findings, and applications to address some or most of the above foundational questions. Likewise, we examined how different cultures and groups of individuals constructed psychology and the barriers that they have faced, and in some cases continue to face, in the further development of psychology.

We know a lot about the affective, behavioral, and cognitive systems and their interaction in a variety of human and nonhuman species in a variety of contexts. Psychology is a noble enterprise, and, fortunately, many issues remain to be addressed, meaning that history is in the hands of our readers and still has a future. Some of the issues humanity faces can benefit from a solid knowledge of the history of psychology and need to be addressed in collaboration with other sciences, professions, the arts and humanities, scholars, economists, and politicians. Such issues include the following:

• We need to better understand the dynamics, benefits, interactions, and barriers to effective adaptation to a continuously changing world. Such an understanding should incorporate the contexts of personal, cultural, religious, spiritual, ethnic, intellectual, and scientific values and practices.
• We need to better understand the brain, especially diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Lou Gehrig’s (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)) diseases, as they strike more and more of the world population.
• We need to better understand how to construct and deploy behavioral prevention and intervention strategies to deal with HIV/AIDS and similar epidemics, and other affectively, behaviorally, and cognitively based challenges to health and well-being.
• We need to better understand the conditions that lead to aggression, war, and terrorism to find more humane and productive ways to resolve conflict at the individual and collective levels.
• We need to better modulate the greed of the few and the misery of the many in developed and emerging sectors of the world.
• We need to better understand and regulate population growth and consumption to promote the well-being of people, other creatures, and the natural resources that we all seem to take for granted.
• We need to better understand human strengths and virtues to promote the further development of healthy and effective individuals and communities.

The above list is intended only to be suggestive; there are many other challenges before all of us. We hope this book assists in some manner those individuals who address these and other issues now and in the future. Please feel free to contact us regarding any question or comment you have about our book at robert.lawson@uvm.edu.