A useful and reliable guide to Wundt’s entire work.

Abstract

Reviews the book, 'Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920): Introduction, Quotations, Reception, Commentaries, Attempts at Reconstruction' by Jochen Fahrenberg (2020). Dr. Jochen Fahrenberg-Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Freiburg in Germany-has done great service to Wundt. In his new book, he offers for the first time an overview of Wundt's entire work, including the three main areas of neurophysiology, psychology, and philosophy. The book is divided in six chapters. The first one displays the author's objectives and explains his approach to Wundt's work. In the second, Fahrenberg offers a short but very useful biography, including Wundt's curriculum vitae, his teaching and research activities, his political and religious attitudes, and a chronological Table with biographical data. The third chapter is the central part of Fahrenberg's project, comprising about two-thirds of the whole book. The fourth chapter deals with the reception of Wundt's work, being the most detailed study of its kind so far. In the fifth chapter, instead of presenting Wundt's ideas in isolation, Fahrenberg tries to reconstruct them in systematic terms, focusing on Wundt's principles and his theory of apperception. In the few pages of the last chapter, Fahrenberg addresses Wundt's current relevance. The merits of Fahrenberg's book are difficult to overlook. It is the first of its kind to be published in English and will certainly help many readers to orient themselves in the thick forest of Wundt's writings; it is a useful and reliable guide to Wundt's entire work, a pleasant invitation to his complex ideas. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).