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From Racing Horses to Seeing the Elephant

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A New Unified Theory of Psychology

Abstract

What if the field of psychology had a unified theory that virtually all agreed was the correct one? What if, as a group, we psychologists could clearly define the discipline, unite the various psychological paradigms into a coherent meta-paradigm, and clarify psychology’s relationship to the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities? It boggles the mind to ponder the implications of such a thing. And yet that is what this book is about. It offers a new unified theory of psychology that attempts to do all of this—and more.

So oft in theologic wars,

The disputants, I ween,

Rail on in utter ignorance

Of what each other mean,

And prate about an Elephant

Not one of them has seen!

John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This is not to say that deep biological theory is totally complete, only that a consensually agreed upon outline has been achieved. Biological researchers have still not solved the fundamental problem of how life began. Thus, deeper insights are still to be made, perhaps along the lines of self-organization or nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Nonetheless, the combination of natural selection and genetics has provided enough understanding so that the joint point is relatively clear.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA

    Gregg Henriques

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  1. Gregg Henriques
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Correspondence to Gregg Henriques .

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Henriques, G. (2011). From Racing Horses to Seeing the Elephant. In: A New Unified Theory of Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0058-5_1

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