Pluralism, intertextuality, and selectivity: Prospects for a critical historiography of psychology

Abstract

A lack of reflection on the conditions that involve the act of knowing and narrating the history of psychology ends up generating a profusion of poorly told, distorted, biased, and simplified histories, which reinforce a certain type of automatism in historiographical produc­tion. Starting from the notions of pluralism and intertextuality, as presented in two texts by Prof. Abib, the aim of this article is to discuss some of these conditions of historiographical work in psychology. To those two notions we add the inexorable character of the historian’s selectivity and its implications. We argue that such reflection can awaken the self-awareness of the historian of psychology and, therefore, contribute to the reduction of that automatism. Thus, we will be able to defend a more critical perspective for the historiography of psychology.