Science and Medicine in Dialogue: Thinking through Particulars and Universals (Praeger Series in Health Psychology)

How does a doctor or therapist bridge the gap between particulars and generalizations regarding patients and various phenomena or diseases? The authors of this volume illustrate the multiple ways practitioners in the fields of clinical psychology and medicine address the tension between the universal nature of scientific knowledge and its particular applications. They discuss the fact that some decisions, if made erroneously, have impacts that cannot be reversed. An error in the realms of medicine, ecology, peace, and war brings with it psychological strategies that differ from those a practitioner faces where errors are correctable.

How does a doctor or therapist bridge the gap between particulars and generalizations regarding patients and various phenomena or diseases? The authors of this volume illustrate the multiple ways practitioners in the fields of clinical psychology and medicine address the tension between the universal nature of scientific knowledge and its particular applications. They discuss the fact that some decisions, if made erroneously, have impacts that cannot be reversed. An error in the realms of medicine, ecology, peace, and war brings with it psychological strategies that differ from those a practitioner faces where errors are correctable.

The disciplines of psychology and medicine have two shared goals. The first is that both disciplines seek a basic understanding about how human beings exist in their ordinary biological and psychological worlds and the second is the attempt to describe and treat disruptions of each person's healthy state of being. Therefore, the four coeditors uncover areas of mutual interest between the two disciplines and the basis for the conflicts that have arisen in their fields.

Roger Bibace is Chief of the Division of Behavioral Science in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at New England Medical Center in Boston, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tufts University Medical School, and Adjunct Professor of Family and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

James D. Laird is Professor of Psychology in the Francis Hiatt School of Psychology, Clark University.

Kenneth L. Noller is the Louis E. Phaneuf Professor and Chair in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tufts-New England Medical Center.

Jaan Valsiner is Professor and Chair in the Department of Psychology, Clark University.