The Person: (Still) A Problem or (Already) a Backstreet of Modern Psychology?

Joanna TRZÓPEK

Zakład Komunikacji Społecznej i Badań Podstawowych w Psychologii, Instytut Psychologii Stosowanej, Wydział Zarządzania i Komunikacji Społecznej, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, ul. Łojasiewicza 4, 30-348 Cracow, Poland , Poland

Abstract

The concept of ‘person’ as distinct from those of ‘human being’ or ‘individual’ is practically absent from modern scientific psychology, since it takes its roots from philosophical anthropology. In psychology, the concept of ‘person’ has marked its presence merely in the non-naturalistic currents, such as humanistic psychology or existential psychology. The article is inspired by the conceptualization of ‘person’ in the latter, in particular in the work of Carl Rogers and Viktor Frankl. In the course of the paper these two—fairly different—understandings of ‘person’ are studied against some aspects of the modern mainstream psychology, namely, personality psychology, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and neuroscience. As a result of the scrutiny some significant questions arise related, on the one hand, to the possibility of such a redefinition of ‘person’ which would enable a use of the concept in the empirical research conducted within the naturalistic approach. On the other hand, however, the redefinition in question must not involve elimination of the most essential contents of the concept of ‘person.’

Translated by Dorota Chabrajska

Keywords:

person, self-regulation, moral phenomenology, automatic processes, controlled processes