An Essay and Its Echoes: Reflecting with My Commentators

Abstract

Abstract Very seldom in the life of a scholar is there an opportunity to reflect on one’s writing of some 50 years past. What was communicated, what were the repercussions, and where were the blind spots? This is first to express my appreciation to Girishwar Misra, whom I have long admired and whose friendship I cherish, for inciting discussion of my Gergen (1973) essay, “Social Psychology as History.” The essay has enjoyed continuing interest and a generous number of citations over the years, and there was a certain drama that “an insider experimentalist” at the time, turned on his discipline to challenge its viability. However, there is much more to the story of the essay and its ramifications, and I am deeply indebted to the contributors of the present issue of Psychological Studies for their caring attention to these.