What to read after History and Philosophy of Psychology?

The history and philosophy of psychology is an account of the past, a record of how and what happened to make psychology what it is today. Like all history the history of psychology is both interesting and boring too. It has been taught in universities as ‘Systems and Theories of Psychology’, ‘History and Philosophy of Psychology’ etc. but is a mandatory paper for all those studying psychology in any university in the world. Yet surprisingly not very many books have been written. The books on the grand historical evolution of psychology from philosophy are complex and academic. For students the paper becomes theoretical and less exciting too. When I started my teaching career ‘Systems and Theories of Psychology’ was the first paper I taught in Daulat Ram College and Lady Shriram College, University of Delhi. It was a difficult paper to begin your career with and that is when I looked at ways to make the paper interesting and captivating. This book owes its genesis to that phase. History can be looked as a documentation of the past but history is also an autobiography and a biography. The history of psychology is also its autobiography and biography. It is alive with trials and mistakes, discoveries and aha moments and is a story waiting to unfold, waiting to be read. This book is written for those entering the world of psychology. It gives an insight into the evolution and genesis of the current concepts and theories. An attempt has been made to keep it simple and easy to understand. In the 10 chapters an attempt has been to parsimoniously capture the tenets of the various schools of psychology and the contributions of various psychologists who have been instrumental in creating the discipline of psychology. Each idea, each thesis that was formulated led to an anti thesis, a revolution, and a synthesis and that in a nutshell is the story of the evolution of psychology. The book follows this paradigm. If the book can generate interest to read in depth, then the book’s existence is validated and I do hope that the book makes you the reader look for more and I hope it makes you curious and interested in the field of psychology