The goal of this book is to locate the birth pangs of psychology—the study of the psyche—in in the Renaissance unity of art and science. The historical period 1583-1611 in Prague was a particularly productive for all Europe in its intellectual advancements in art and science. It was facilitated by the special personality of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II who during his reign made Prague the capital of the Empire where the major artists, scientists, architects and alchemists came together in the service of the Emperor and formed a unique context of interdisciplinary synthesis of ideas that enhanced European philosophies, sciences, and arts in the following centuries. While the history of art in and astronomy in the Rudolfine era has been amply covered, the impacts of the intellectual atmosphere of the era on psychology, philosophy, social ideologies, and aesthetics has remained scarcely investigated. The volume includes analyses of history of ideas in psychology, sociology and other social sciences that received the impetus of the political situation of Rudolfine Prague with religious tolerance and decline of the political power of the Holy Roman Empire.

Foundations of the Psychological Intervention presents a new General Theory for Psychological Intervention (GTPI), delving into how its methodology can be applied across diverse psychological contexts. Rooted in semiotic cultural psychology and guided by the GTPI framework, this book offers a cohesive perspective of psychology, addressing the prevailing fragmentation evident in various domains of psychology such as health, sports, forensic, organisational, and clinical psychology. The framework establishes a foundation of methods and techniques that render psychological interventions applicable across various domains, substantiated by concrete examples from different areas. With chapters revolving around theories of action, change and the client dynamics, this groundbreaking work provides both a conceptual and methodological structure to underpin domain-specific theories and methodologies, thereby strengthening the conceptual links among distinct domains of psychology. As one of the first works to develop a theory and method of intervention across multiple psychological domains, this book will be of interest to postgraduate students and researchers specialising in cultural psychology, clinical psychology, health psychology, and the philosophy of psychology. Moreover, it serves as a useful reading for practising psychologists and psychology professionals.

The result of a deep research work sustained for more than two decades, this book studies the construction of social knowledge from a constructivist perspective inherited from Piagetian thought. It thus advances in a process of revision and discussion, while maintaining crucial aspects of this current for the approach to the construction of the subject and the object of knowledge, in the search for the elaboration of an explanatory theory for the formation of new knowledge. A collaborative proposal between different disciplines of potential interest for the different actors who study and intervene in this field.

Contains full reports on the meetings in 1990 (held Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam) and features recent interviews, essays and artworks by all twenty panalists, who include artists, spiritual leaders, economists and scientists.