ESHHS Member News
New publication in German!
Wolfgang Schneider & Armin Stock, Pionierinnen der Psychologie. Herausfordernde Karrieren deutschsprachiger Wissenschaftlerinnen im frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Göttingen: Hogrefe, 2026
The book can be purchased here.
This volume illuminates the lives of 32 pioneering women in scientific psychology, born around the turn of the 20th century, who generally began their academic training after the First World War. It includes all female scientists who were able to obtain their habilitation in psychology in German-speaking countries up to 1945. A key objective of the presentation is to characterize typical barriers to the advancement of young female scientists during the Weimar Republic, the Nazi dictatorship, and the post-war period.
This volume explains the prerequisites for the scientific and professional success of these women and identifies commonalities in their life paths. The comparison of pioneering women who emigrated before or during the Nazi era, as well as those who remained in German-speaking countries, is also of interest. Thorough research has also made it possible to uncover interconnections in the lives of female scientists that developed during their early training and continued later—for example, after their emigration—in the form of friendships. Although several works already exist on the challenges faced by selected female scientists in their careers, this volume provides what is probably the most comprehensive German-language overview to date of the careers of pioneering women in scientific psychology of the early 20th century.
Der Band beleuchtet den Lebensweg von 32 Pionierinnen der wissenschaftlichen Psychologie, die um die Wende zum 20. Jahrhundert geboren wurden und ihre akademische Ausbildung in der Regel nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg begannen. So werden unter anderem alle Wissenschaftlerinnen berücksichtigt, die sich im deutschsprachigen Bereich bis 1945 im Fach Psychologie habilitieren konnten. Ein wesentliches Ziel der Darstellung besteht darin, typische Barrieren für den Aufstieg von jungen Wissenschaftlerinnen in der Zeit der Weimarer Republik, während der NS-Diktatur und auch in der Nachkriegszeit zu charakterisieren. Der Band erläutert die Voraussetzungen für den wissenschaftlichen und beruflichen Erfolg dieser Frauen und identifiziert Gemeinsamkeiten in den Lebenswegen. Interessant ist auch der Vergleich von Pionierinnen, die vor oder während der NS-Zeit emigrierten oder aber im deutschsprachigen Bereich verblieben. Anhand gründlicher Recherchen war es auch möglich, Querbeziehungen in den Schicksalen von Wissenschaftlerinnen zu entdecken, die sich schon in deren früher Ausbildungsphase entwickelten und die dann auch später – etwa nach ihrer Emigration – in Form von Freundschaften weiterbestanden. Obwohl es bereits einige Arbeiten zu den Problemen in den beruflichen Laufbahnen ausgewählter Wissenschaftlerinnen gibt, liefert dieser Band die bislang wohl umfassendste deutschsprachige Übersicht über den Werdegang von Pionierinnen der wissenschaftlichen Psychologie des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts.
Two new book publications!
Roger Smith, Modern Soul Experience in Psychology and Philosophy.
Routledge, March 2026
The book can be purchased here.
This interdisciplinary work examines the significant though often implicit role of soul in modern psychological discourse and human experience, challenging belief in its obsolescence in contemporary scientific contexts. It demonstrates how soul language explores human values and meaning in the modern world. It provides a uniquely wide ranging analysis of the concept of soul while analyzing its contemporary usage, historical development, anthropology and presence in psychological theory and practice.
Through examination of beliefs worldwide, the book rejects the dismissive view that soul language is merely figurative, arguing instead that it complements the language of embodiment as vita esistance to forces that diminish discussions of human values. The conclusion argues for soul language (‘soul talk’) for expressing the subjective world where people, things and events truly matter, giving life to experiences that transcend purely materialist explanations.
This is a valuable analysis and overview for professional and academic psychologists, philosophers, theologians, anthropologists, and researchers interested in human nature, subjectivity and consciousness studies. It is also a useful and accessible resource for anyone exploring the intersection of spirituality, human values and scientific understanding of human experience.
Irina Sirotkina, Dancing Freedom: Modern Dance in Late Imperial Russia and the Early Soviet Union. Bloomsbury, March 2026
The book can be purchased here.
For a long time, dance scholars and the public were hardly aware that modern dance existed in Russia. This book, however, delves into its presence, significance and survival in the late Tsarist and Soviet era, showing the large and significant positive contribution this made to the history of modern dance. A creation of liberal body politics, ‘free’ or ‘modern’ dance flourished in late Imperial Russia and the early Soviet Union, before the hardening of communist regimes. An ideal embodiment of emancipation, free dance attracted dancers and audiences, including a significant number of modernist artists and intellectuals.
This book looks in particular at Isadora Duncan and her impact on Stanislavsky’s methods, as well as on the ballet choreographer Michel Fokine. It throws light on Duncan’s Moscow School, biomechanics and many modern dance studios of the time, their role in creating new systems of training – different from ballet, and their creation of a modern dance ‘body’.
The author discusses the subsequent introduction of a ‘rationalisation’ of movement, including biomechanics and machine dances, aimed at controlling the body and underplaying the erotic very present in modern dance.
Finally, the book follows free dance into the years of Stalin’s Cultural Revolution, where choreographers had to adapt to the new ideological environment, with modern dance choreographers then staging sport parades showcasing the ideal Soviet body – athletic, vigorous and disciplined. A far cry from the freedom of modern dance. But the story includes an account of the passing down into the present, through generations of ‘mothers’ and ‘daughters’, of which the author is one, of the original ideals and practices.
René Van Hezewijk & Henderikus J. Stam, The Indispensability of Phenomenology, Experiment and History; Life and Work of Johannes Linschoten. Springer, 2024.
The book can be purchased here.
This book is the first comprehensive intellectual biography of Johannes Linschoten, whose work has been credited with helping to bring down the Utrecht School of phenomenological psychology. The authors show this to be a mistaken assumption in the light of Linschoten’s entire oeuvre and demonstrate his importance for an understanding of a phenomenological psychology that necessarily coexists with an experimental, scientific psychology. In the Netherlands, Linschoten is particularly appreciated for his last book, published posthumously. That volume, Idols of the Psychologist, took a critical look at phenomenological psychology and its pretensions while simultaneously acknowledging that a phenomenological outlook is a necessity for beginning any kind of experimental investigation. Most commentators on this book considered Linschoten a convert from phenomenology to experimental psychology, but have either ignored his earlier, substantive work or have not seen the importance of the intellectual context for his final work.
By examining his life and the full extent of his voluminous writings, this book demonstrates Linschoten’s importance for the development of psychology in the Netherlands and beyond. It will shed new light on the life and work of Johannes Linschoten as well as the Dutch school of phenomenology and its postwar contributions to psychology in Europe and North America. Furthermore, for the first time, this book brings together important aspects of Linschoten’s life with his prodigious output. It demonstrates how his life and work created a unique psychology that deserves to be continued and developed.