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BOOK REVIEW
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UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE
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by Trevor Butt
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Basingstoke: Palgrave MacimIllan, 2004,
193 pages |
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reviewed by
Phil Salmon
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How, and in what terms are we to
understand
people? In this cogent and wide-ranging discussion, Trevor Butt argues
for an
existential-phenomenological psychology. Early chapters offer an
unusually
clear, wide-ranging and careful consideration of approaches in which
personality has been a key concept. This
includes theorists such as Eysenck, who, though highly influential in
the 1950s
and 1960s, seldom features in contemporary writing. It also covers
object
relations theory, where appropriate but seldom-made distinctions are
drawn
between diverse contributory theorists. A particular strength of this
section
is its consideration of the socio-historical context of the writers it
features.
In the analysis of this group of theorists as ultimately too a-social,
critical
judgements are made from a fundamentally fair, even sympathetic
standpoint.
The book then turns to the explicitly
social psychology of social constructionism. Here again, there is a
lucid
exposition of key concepts, and of the various takes on these by
influential
theorists. As with the more individualistic approaches considered
earlier, Butt
illustrates these ideas with a variety of clinical or everyday
examples. It is
in relation to the sense of self - foregrounded in probably the most
powerful
chapter – that social constructionism is found wanting. In its story of
apparently non-agentic products of social determinism, this line of
thought
offers, in Butt’s terms, only a mirage of persons.
Yet, so runs Butt’s argument, any
adequate
understanding must concede the significance of social engagements and
social
discourses. It is here that an existential-phenomenological psychology,
with
its incorporation of Mead’s ideas and those of the hermeneutic
philosophers,
can potentially marry the social with the personal. This kind of
understanding
can also allow the existence of agency alongside that of social
influence. With
its emphasis on inner reflections and pre-reflective engagement, this
psychology does not separate personal from social. And its focus on the
human
order recognises the significance of embodiment and living-in-time.
Writings on phenomenology and on
existentialism have typically been abstruse. Not this book, which is
consistently fresh, direct and lucid, abjuring technical language for
even the
most difficult concepts. Though theoretically weighty, it wears its
learning
lightly. There is one problem in this. The economy and fluency of the
writing
at times draw the reader along too easily, where the sheer density of
ideas
needs a lengthier exposition. For the same reason though, its
accessibility
makes it seem suited to any intelligent reader, although its substance
probably
demands at least a second year undergraduate audience. And certainly it
is a
book for academics: a read that is both enjoyable and deeply
thought-provoking. |
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REFERENCE
Salmon, P. (2004).
Review of: Butt, T.
(2004). Understanding People. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. Personal
Construct Theory & Practice,
1, 33
(Retrieved from http://www.pcp-net.org/journal/pctp04/salmon-butt04.html)
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Received: 25 Jan 2004 - Accepted: 25 Jan 2004 -
Published: 31 Jan 2004 |
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