This article briefly discusses the historical context and main currents of William Stem's (1871-1938) important but to date little-known contributions to the discourse of theoretical psychology. The sketch of Stem's critical personalism offered here is intended to provide the reader with a conceptual background for the various contributions to the Special Issue.
We applaud McAdams's initiative in attempting to outline a new conceptual framework for studying persons. To the extent that his article prompts further perspectival reflection in a field much in need of same, it will have served a useful purpose. This much said, however, our overall reaction to the article is one of disappointment. We find McAdams's perspective on the history of personality far more limited than it could be and his eclectic tastes rather less discriminating than they should be. These are serious issues because they carry important implications for our vision of the field's future. In what follows, we hope to contribute positively to dialogue on relevant matters.
In an American Psychologist article published in 1981, the author of the present contribution began a critique of the epistemic tenets of the traditional individual differences framework for personality research, which has long dominated the field. Though at first that article and others published soon thereafter generated some needed critical discourse within the discipline, mainstream investigative practices remain now just as they have long been, and, in the meantime, the critical discourse itself has largely ceased. In the present contribution, the author relates his attempts to understand these developments through historical research into the roots of mainstream thinking. Given the nature and depth of these roots, the continuing resistance to change within the mainstream is more readily understood. Nevertheless, it is argued, the need for such change remains, and it is observed that in the prevailing intellectual climate of the discipline, such change still does not appear imminent.
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