A Critical History of Psychology: From Antiquity to Modernity

Citation

Leahey, T. H. (2025). A Critical History of Psychology: From Antiquity to Modernity (9th ed.). Routledge.

Chapter Summary

The ninth edition is organised in five parts, with thirteen numbered chapters, a prelude, three interludes and a postlude. Routledge describes it as placing the social, economic and political forces of change alongside psychology's internal theoretical and empirical arguments. It takes a critical lens on how the external world has shaped psychology and how psychology has in turn shaped society, and approaches the material in an integrative rather than wholly linear way. The edition is newly restructured, with additional interludes on historical background and the rise of modernity so that the book can be used flexibly. It also expands its treatment of what it calls the two psychologies: the Way of Ideas, driven by epistemology and distinctive to Europe, and the Way of Human Nature, a universal concern to find a science of human behaviour and its management.

Part One: Situating Psychology

Chapter 1: Introduction

The opening chapter places psychology in context and sets up the critical approach the rest of the book follows.

Part Two: Psychology Before Psychology: Discovery of the Mind

Prelude, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3: The World We Have Lost; Antiquity: Locating the Mind Within; Hellenism, Feudalism, and Renaissance: Tending the Soul

Part Two begins with a prelude, "The World We Have Lost: EEA to 1688 CE", and then covers antiquity and the long period from the Hellenistic world through feudalism to the Renaissance. The chapter subtitles indicate the themes: locating the mind within the person in antiquity, and tending the soul in the later period.

Part Three: A Science of the Mind

Interlude I and Chapters 4–6: The Way of Ideas; Psychology of Consciousness; Psychology of Adaptation

Interlude I, "Modernity in Mind and the Rise of Science: 1543 to 1915", supplies the historical background. Chapter 4, "The Way of Ideas: Furnishing the Mind", is the chapter on the European epistemological tradition that the publisher names as one of the two psychologies. Chapter 5, "Psychology of Consciousness: Looking Inward", and Chapter 6, "Psychology of Adaptation: Looking Outward", pair an inward-looking and an outward-looking psychology.

Part Four: A Science of Human Nature

Interlude II and Chapters 7–9: Social Science before Science; Psychology of the Unconscious; Psychology and Social Science

Interlude II, "Modernity, its Disenchantments, and Social Policy", precedes three chapters. Chapter 7, "Social Science before Science: Approaching the Social Problem", turns to the social sciences. Chapter 8, "Psychology of the Unconscious: Confronting Irrationality", covers the psychology of the unconscious. Chapter 9, "Psychology and Social Science: Managing Modern Life", ties psychology to the management of modern life.

Part Five: Two Psychologies in the Modern World

Interlude III and Chapters 10–13: Behaviorism; Cognitive Science; Applied and Professional Psychology; The Psychological Society

Interlude III, "Late Modernity: War, Peace, War, Peace, War", leads into the twentieth century. Chapter 10, "Behaviorism: Ostracizing Mind", and Chapter 11, "Cognitive Science: Return of the Prodigal", treat the two major scientific movements. Chapter 12, "Applied and Professional Psychology: Treating the Individual", covers the practice side of the field, and Chapter 13, "The Psychological Society: Coping with (Post)Modernity", considers psychology's place in contemporary society.

Postlude: Reflections on Psychology Today

The book ends with reflections on the state of psychology in the present.

Key Concepts

Parts One and Two

• Critical history: reading psychology's internal debates alongside social, economic and political forces.
• Psychology before psychology: the long history of ideas about mind and soul before the modern discipline.

Parts Three and Four

• The Way of Ideas: the epistemology-driven tradition the publisher describes as unique to Europe.
• The Way of Human Nature: the universal concern for a science of human behaviour and its management.
• Psychology of consciousness and of adaptation: the inward-looking and outward-looking psychologies of Chapters 5 and 6.
• Psychology of the unconscious: the subject of Chapter 8.

Part Five

• Behaviorism and cognitive science: the two scientific movements of Chapters 10 and 11.
• Applied and professional psychology: the topic of Chapter 12.
• The psychological society: the subject of Chapter 13.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Context beyond the laboratory. The publisher stresses that the external world is treated as a shaping force on psychology, and the interludes on modernity, the disenchantments of modern life and war supply that context between the parts.
• A very long timeline. The book runs from its prelude, which spans the period from "EEA to 1688 CE", through antiquity and the Renaissance to the present, which lets the reader see modern psychology as one chapter in a longer history of ideas about mind.
• A flexible structure. The publisher says the five additional interludes were added so that the book can be used flexibly, so an instructor can assign the chapters without every interlude or use them as background reading.
• Applied and professional psychology included. The coverage extends beyond the experimental tradition to applied and professional psychology, the social sciences and social policy, as the publisher notes.

Limitations

• A particular argument. The book is called a critical history and organises the story around two psychologies, so it reads as an interpretation, not a neutral survey. Readers should compare it with more conventional accounts to see where the interpretation diverges.
• Level. The publisher recommends it for high-level undergraduate and graduate students; a first-time reader of the history of psychology may find it dense and may prefer a shorter textbook first.
• Length of coverage. The scope, from antiquity to the Psychological Society, means that individual figures and schools are treated within larger themes, and readers who want biographical detail will need a text built around people.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the history and schools of psychology course, this is the broadest and most interpretive of the survey books. Wertheimer and Puente's A Brief History of Psychology is a concise first text on the subject, and Schultz and Schultz's A History of Modern Psychology is a concise account organised around the succession of schools of thought, with biographical material and excerpts from original writings. Fancher and Rutherford's Pioneers of Psychology tells the history through the lives of the people who shaped the field. Any of these is a gentler first read, and Leahey's book then gives the wider social and philosophical frame.

Kurt Danziger's Constructing the Subject is a focused study of how psychological research methods developed as social practices, and it pairs well with Leahey's attention to external forces. Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams is a primary work that can be read alongside Chapter 8, on the psychology of the unconscious.

How to Use This Book

The book is for advanced undergraduates and graduate students who have taken an introductory psychology course and a first course on the history or schools of psychology. It also serves as a reference for the history of particular schools.

A practical plan:

• Read Chapter 1 to learn the critical approach and the two-psychologies framing, which organises everything else.
• Follow the parts in order if reading as a history. The interludes are background and can be read quickly when the surrounding chapters are the focus.
• For a course on the schools of psychology, concentrate on Part Three and Part Five (Chapters 4 to 6 and 10 to 13), and use Parts Two and Four for the origins and the social context.
• Use the postlude to compare Leahey's view of psychology today with other textbooks.