Principles of Topological Psychology

Download or read book Principles of Topological Psychology written by Kurt Lewin and published by Munshi Press. This book was released on 2008-11 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: EXPERIMENTS IN PSYCHOLOGY Davis PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING Dorcus and Jones HANDBOOK OF EMPLOYEE SELECTION Dunlap RELIGION ITS FUNCTIONS IN HUMAN LIFE Ghiselli and Brown PERSONNEL AND INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY Gray PSYCHOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS Guilford FUNDAMENTAL STATISTICS IN PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCA TION Guilford PSYCHOMETRIC METHODS Hurlock ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT Hurlock CHILD DEVELOPMENT Johnson ESSENTIALS OF PSYCHOLOGY Krech and Crutchfield THEORY AND PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL PSY CHOLOGY Lewin A DYNAMIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY Lewin PRINCIPLES OF TOPOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY Maier FRUSTRATION Maier and Schneirla PRINCIPLES OF ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY Miller EXPERIMENTS IN SOCIAL PROCESS Moore PSYCHOLOGY FOR BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY Morgan and Stellar PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY Page ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY Pillsbury AN ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY or THE ABNORMAL Reymert FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS Richards MODERN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY Seashore PSYCHOLOGY OF Music Seward SEX AND THE SOCIAL ORDER Stagner PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONALITY Wallin PERSONALITY MALADJUSTMENTS AND MENTAL HYGIENE John F. Dashiell was Consulting Editor of this series from its inception in 1931 until January 1, 1950. PRINCIPLES OF TOPOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY BY KURT LEWIN Professo r of Child Psychology, Iowa Child-Welfare Research Station University of Iowa TRANSLATED BY FRITZ HEIDER Assistant Professor, Department of Education, Smith College AND GRACE M. HEIDER FIRST EDITION SDCTEC IMPRESSION McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC, NEW YORK AND LONDON 1936 COPYRIGHT, 1936, BY THE MCGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STA1ES OP AMERICA All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof j may not be reproduced in any form without permission of the publishers. THE MAPLE PRESSCOMPANY, YORK, PA, To THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY Jerusalem PREFACE DR. WOLFGANG KOHLER Swarthmore College Swarthmore, Pa. DEAR KOHLER This book is the result of a very slow growth. I remember the moment when more than ten years ago it occurred to me that the figures on the blackboard which were to illustrate some problems for a group in psychology might after all be not merely illustrations but representations of real concepts. Much interested in the theory of science, I had already in 1912 as a student defended the thesis against a then fully accepted philo sophical dictum that psychology, dealing with manifolds of coexist ing facts, would be finally forced to use not only the concept of time but that of space too. Knowing something of the general theory of point sets, I felt vaguely that the young mathematical discipline topology might be of some help in making psychology a real science. I began studying topology and making use of its concepts, which soon appeared to me particularly fitted to the specific problems of psychology. However, this undertaking expanded rapidly, forcing me to consider wider and wider fields of psychology and to face more and more involved problems. That is the reason why this book has seen quite a number of unfinished and unpublished editions, and why it does not yet contain the vector psychology. The main diffi culty has not been the mastering of the mathematical problems as uch, at least insofar as the topological problems are concerned. After several attempts to employ the more complicated concepts of topology, I found it both sufficient and more fruitful to refer to the most simple topological concepts only. Vector psychology will, of course, require a moreelaborate mathematical setup and will in all probability even make it-necessary to enter a somewhat undeveloped field of mathematics. But the main difficulty was the dealing with problems which lie, so to say, between psychology and mathematics...