Revisiting the past to create the future:

Kenneth J. Gergen's contributions to Social Psychology in crisis in the 1970s

Abstract

This paper analyzes the article “Social Psychology as History”, published in 1973 by Kenneth Jay Gergen, emphasizing its main arguments, the context of publication and the repercussions on North American and Brazilian social psychology. By means of a bibliographical survey, at first, we present the constituent elements of the period of crisis in social psychology in the 1970s, and then we bring the two lines of argument of the aforementioned author. We problematized at whom his criticisms were directed, that is, who he had as an interlocutor, which means of communication he used and how were the first reactions to him in the US and Brazil. We conclude that, even facing difficulties in the dominant academic milieu in social psychology at the time, Gergen managed to spread his reflections and contribute to the strengthening of the Constructionist movement.