We have recognized that the individual can be understood only as part of the society to which he belongs, and that society can be understood only on the basis of the interrelations of the constituent individuals.  In earlier times experimental psychology was based on the assumption that the individuals exist in vacuo, that mental activities are based essentially on the organically determined functioning of the structure of the individual.  This attitude presents the most striking contrast to the more modern view, which requires an understanding of the individual, even the youngest, as reacting to its general, particularly its social, environment.  The problems of the social sciences are thus easily defined.  They relate to forms of reactions of individuals, singly and in groups, to outer stimuli, to their interactions among themselves, and to the social forms produced by these processes. (p. 84)

An error of modern anthropology ... lies in the overemphasis on historical reconstruction, ..., as against a penetrating study of the individual under the stress of the culture in which he lives. (p. 98) 

Friday, June 2, 2000