Two Critical Movements In Contemporary Chinese Psychology

During 1958 and the "Great Cultural Revolution",two peaks of criticism of psychology have taken place in China.It is very important for us to understand the history of scientific criticism in China,and absorb the experience through systematic researching these critical movements.However,there is little research in this field.Therefore,the paper makes a systematic and in-depth discussion on the basic situation of the two critical movements of psychology,and tries to show the background,motivation,process,content and influence of the two critical movements of psychology objectively and comprehensively.On the basis of extensive research data and materials,the main content of this paper has the following aspects:In terms of social background,this paper probes the national policies and political movements of PRC through researching some typical examples in psychological circles,such as ideological reform movement,departments adjustment of college,the policy of "letting a hundred flowers bloom,a hundred schools of thought contend",the "Anti-Rightist" and the "Great Leap Forward" on the influence of psychology,and shows the social background and historical roots of the two critical movements of psychology comprehensively.In terms of the main content,this paper focuses on the whole process of the criticism of psychology in 1958 and the "Great Cultural Revolution",detailing the typical critical events in psychological unit such as "Institute Of Psychology,CAS",Beijing Normal University,Peking University,Hang Zhou University and so on,analyzing the form,content,nature,characteristics,impact,the contact and similarities and differences of the two critical movements,and reveals the essence is to implement the class struggle in the field of psychology,to replace academic criticism with political criticism.In order to clearly sort out the internal logic between the two critical movements of psychology and show the process of criticism of psychology,this paper also discusses the basic situation of criticism of psychology between the two critical movements,that is,from the end of 1958 to the eve of the "Great Cultural Revolution".Due to the change of national policies,the criticism of psychology in this period was at a low ebb,and it was no longer dominated by political criticism,but a series of academic criticism and debates in line with the academic spirit spontaneously generated by the psychology circle.This type of academic criticism not only did not hinder,on the contrary,but also promoted the comprehensive development of domestic psychology during this period.This paper holds that the two critical movements of psychology are typical examples of the spread of the far-left ideological trend in the academic circle.The critics regarded all academic problems as political problems,wrongly accuse psychology as "bourgeois pseudoscience",and turn academic criticism as a tool of class struggle.Its essence is to implement the line of class struggle in the field of psychology.In short,this paper makes a comprehensive,systematic,in-depth research on the two critical movements of psychology in contemporary China,and further shows the overall situation of criticism of psychology in PRC,thus to some extent filling the gap in the fields of academic.