Wilhelm Wundt – Völkerpsychologie

Christa Schneider, geb. 1954, Gymnasiallehrerin, Psychotherapeutin, Mitarbeiterin an der Fachhochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Zürich.Buchveröffentlichung: Wilhelm Wundts Völkerpsychologie, 1990, Bouvier.

How does the self-consciousness of a group, of a people or even of a nation develop? How do languages, myths and conventions develop as a product of the human spirit, something which binds the individuals of a community together with one another? Wilhelm Wundt pursues these very questions in his Völkerpsychological writings. He substantiates psychology not just as an autonomous science, but specifically as a Völkerpsychologie that investigates the interactions between the individual and collective soul and the material objectivations. In the turn towards the material and the everyday, Wundt sets himself apart from the philosophy of German Idealism. At the beginning of the 20th century his cultural studies striving works represented a challenge for the still young disciplines of ethnology, anthropology, religious studies and sociology. Wundt's desire to philosophically integrate the divergent social and human sciences represents our current need for an interdisciplinary world view.