Edgar Rubin and Psychology in Denmark

Edgar Rubinwas one of the outstanding pioneers of perceptual psychology in the early twentiethcentury. His approach involved a turning away from an earlier elementaristic psychologytowards an approach based on "perceptual wholes." Rubin's approach is closelylinked to the Gestalt revolution in perceptual psychology and was eagerly embraced by the Gestaltists. This has often led to Rubin being classified as a Gestalt psychologist. This misrepresents his position as isshown in the book. Rubin's aim was to develop a descriptivepsychology - or aspective psychology to use his terminology - which would do full justice to the complex nature of psychological phenomena. Thus he rejected attempts by the Gestalt psychologists to explain diverse phenomena within a single overarching framework. While Rubin is internationally often misclassified as a Gestalt psychologist, in Denmark he is often hailed as a pioneer of a specific Danish "school of phenomenology." This also misrepresents Rubin's approach who was highly critical of psychological "schools." His criticisms of the overambitious theoretical aspirations of Gestalt psychology, his negative attitude towards school formationin psychology were both highly prescient. What remains today of Gestalt psychologyis primarily its descriptive parts; the idea of schools of psychology, so common in earlytwentieth century psychology is now seen as a totally outmoded viewpoint. There isan interesting moral in this story for the history and status of psychology; to wit,that Rubin's emphasis on the correct description of psychological phenomena showswhat is likely to live on as classic contributions to psychology. This certainly holds forhis own work on figure and ground which, after almost a century, is still universallyknown and admired by psychologists. He was indeed a consummate psychologicalobserver. The book argues for the importance of description in psychology.