Psychological doctoral program of Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia (AJCUI), together with Gramedia Pustaka Utama, presented a Book Review of “Buku Sejarah Psikologi: Perkembangan Perspektif Teorities” (History of Psychology: Development of Theoretical Perspectives) written by Prof. Irwanto, Ph.D. and Felicia Y. Gunawan, S.Psi. on Thursday (28/2) at Yustinus Building 15th floor, Campus 1 Semanggi. This book review event also invited Dr. Elizabeth Kristi Poerwandari, M.Hum., Psychologist and Dr. Nani Nurrachman, Psychologist, as speakers, and Dr. Lidia Laksana Hidajat, MPH., Psychologist, as the moderator.
As cited from the book, a history of psychological philosophy is a long debate regarding “Who am I?” or “What is actually human and what is the difference between human and other creatures?”. This book tries to dig deeper the history of ideas regarding human and its behaviors. The approach used by the writers brings sociocultural contextual nuance in order to understand the ideas. This book also has a very simple aim, which is to help students in learning psychology in the context of scientific history and thinkers’ perspectives.
“History is about what happened in the past and how those events could be relevant to present time. That’s what I want to express in this book,” said Prof. Irwanto, Ph.D.
Felicia Y. Gunawan, S.Psi. also expressed that psychology is not a Western idea transferred to Indonesia. In fact, Indonesia is rich with knowledge regarding the question of who human is and its disciplines.
After the two writers elaborated simple background of this book, Dr. Lidia Laksana Hidajat, MPH., Psychologist, as the moderator, invited two speakers, Dr. Elizabeth Kristi Poerwandari, M.Hum., Psychologist and Dr. Nani Nurrachman, Psychologist to review the book.
“Psychology is needed by various disciplines in order to support the praxis dimension of the disciplines. However, learning psychology is necessary but not sufficient in itself. It must be supplemented by other biological and social knowledge, including human philosophy and ethics. Learning history of psychology is in line with learning history of philosophy regarding human by the human himself,” said Dr. Nani Nurrachman, Psychologist.