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Remembering Wilhelm Wundt and the Second Leipzig School of Psychology

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Abstract

It has been 100 years since Wilhelm Wundt, our founding father of modern psychology, has passed away. In this present contribution to the journal Human Arenas special topic section marking this centennial milestone, I will be re-visiting some of the theoretical highlights coming out of the first and second Leipzig School of Psychology. Particular focus is given to Wundt’s examination of human consciousness, his emotional-will theory, creative synthesis, and especially the new direction implemented by his successors after his retirement in 1917. That is, the shift from a focus on elementary processes resulting in a creative synthesis to the developmental holistic outlook of Genetic Ganzheitspsychologie that takes holistic complexes and their transformations as the starting point for psychological examinations.

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Notes

  1. For such an account, see Araujo (2016).

  2. For a comprehensive discussion on Gemüt, see Rehmke 1911.

  3. Although it does need to be noted that Wundt’s tridimensional theory of feelings remains far superior to the one-dimensional theories that treat feelings only in terms of the qualitative dichotomy, pleasant-unpleasantness (Diriwächter 2003)

  4. The interested reader may refer to Diriwächter and Valsiner (2008) or Volkelt (1962b) for some accounts.

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  1. Department of Psychology, California Lutheran University, 60 West Olsen Road #3800, Thousand Oaks, CA, 93065, USA

    Rainer Diriwächter

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Diriwächter, R. Remembering Wilhelm Wundt and the Second Leipzig School of Psychology. Hu Arenas 4, 5–19 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-020-00158-y

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