Rethinking Psychological Anthropology: A Critical History by Philip K. Bock, Stephen C. Leavitt
320 pages, $43.95 list
1-4786-3728-5
978-1-4786-3728-8
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Rethinking Psychological Anthropology
A Critical History
Third Edition
After over three decades of continual publication in multiple editions, the Third Edition of Rethinking Psychological Anthropology, now with coauthor Stephen Leavitt, describes the latest interests, concepts, and approaches in the field with the inclusion of four new chapters and updates to earlier topics. The premise of the previous editions remains: that all anthropology is psychological and that the interplay between anthropological methods and the psychological theories existing in different times is dialectical.

Psychological anthropologists have grappled with changing trends in both disciplines, including psychoanalytic, holistic, cognitive, interpretive, and developmental approaches. It is important to appreciate these currents of thought to understand the state of the field today. This text is thus a guide to that history along with a critique that may lead to a new synthesis. It is an ideal choice for courses in psychological anthropology, cross-cultural psychology, and the history of anthropology.
Reactions
“This is a great update and very useful for undergraduates.” — Theodore Fortier, Seattle University

“Excellent revision. This is a very nice guiding text for undergraduate and graduate courses in psychological anthropology.” — Steve Ferzacca, University of Lethbridge
Table of Contents
Prelude: All Anthropology Is Psychological

1. The Psychology of "Primitive" Peoples
Perception, or "Do You See What I See?" / Motivation, or "The Natives Are Restless Tonight" / Cognition, or "Thinking Can Make It So"

2. Psychoanalytic Anthropology
Elements of Psychoanalysis / The Origins of Psychoanalytic Anthropology / Psychoanalysis and Clothing / Summary and Critique

3. Configurations of Culture and Personality
Configurations of Culture / To and from the South Seas / Summary

4. Basic and Modal Personality
Basic Personality Structure (BPS) / The Modal Personality Approach (MP) / Projective Tests: Rorschach and Thematic Apperception / Applications of Projective Tests / Summary

5. National Character Studies
The Yellow Peril / On the Western Front / The Slavic Soul / The Lonely Crowd / And Elsewhere / For Further Consideration

Interlude One: The Crisis in Culture and Personality
The Continuity Assumption / The Uniformity Assumption / The Causal Assumption / The Projective Assumption / The Objectivity Assumption / What's Next?

6. Cross-Cultural Correlations
The Yale Synthesis / Correlations and Customs / Galton's Problem / Male Initiation Rites / Causes of Incest Taboos / Additional Studies

7. The Return of the Repressed
Instinct and Culture / Symbolic Wounds / Insight and Identity / Psychohistory and the Interpretation of Myth / Psychosocial Adaptation / Psychoanalytic Anthropology Redux

8. Social Structure and Personality
Materialist Approaches / Positionalist Approaches / Interactionist Approaches / Studies Relevant to Trauma and Personality

9. Focusing on Behavior
Intensive On-Site Observation / Human Ethology / Attachment, Separation, and Crowding / Feminist Psychological Anthropology / Sociobiology / Concluding Thoughts

10. Cognitive Anthropology
Ethnosemantics / Cognitive Development: Stages, Styles, and Maps / Race, Culture, and Intelligence / Schema Theory and Connectionism / The Question of Motivation / Personal Semantic Networks / Cognitive Analysis of Personal Narrative

11. Shamans, Alternative States, and Schizophrenia
Shamans / Alternative States of Consciousness / Mental Illness and Society / "Schizophrenia" and Mental Illness across Cultures / Difference Approaches to the Treatment of Schizophrenia

12. Emotions and Selfhood
Role, Self, and Identity / Psychology and Cultural Change

Interlude Two: Science versus Interpretation
Ethnopsychology and Ifaluk Emotion / The Defense of Human Nature / The Psychological Power of Emotional Force / Charting New Directions

13. Person-Centered Ethnography
Person-Centered Interviewing / Value of Person-Centered Ethnography / A New Anthropology of Self and Experience / The Anthropology of Narrative / Conclusion

14. About the Body
The Body as a Cultural Construction / Phenomenology and Embodiment / Pain and the Impact of Culture / Narrative and Chronic Illness / Narratives and Social Contexts / Limits of Phenomenology: A Critique

15. The Return of Childhood
Influence of Psychological Theories / Enculturation / Children's Culture
New Research on Attachment / Language in Action / Anthropological Contributions to the Study of Childhood

Postlude: All Psychology Is Cultural