Hermeneutic Approaches offers a different way of understanding human experience and places it in historical, social, and cultural contexts. Each chapter offers fresh and critical perspectives and treatments of lived experiences and shared worlds. Chapters-all well-written and accessible-are paradigmatic examples of how hermeneutics may be used effectively in the study of contemporary social and cultural problems. Topics range from neuroscience to PTSD to Peripartum Mood Disorder to relational psychoanalysis to social justice to end-of-life care. It appeals to broad audiences both within and outside the academy, and in the United States and internationally.
Mary Beth Quaranta Morrissey, Ph.D., J.D., M.P.H., Fordham University Global Health Care Innovation Management Center, USA; co-author of A Public Health Strategy for Living, Aging and Dying in Solidarity: Designing Elder-Centered and Palliative Systems of Care, Environments, Services and Supports
This remarkable book describes the challenging and meaningful experiences that eleven former students had in writing their hermeneutic dissertations with Cushman's wise guidance. Students (and perhaps some faculty supervisors) are desperate for exactly this kind of concrete guidance-it fills a unique and important niche both professionally and relationally.
Blaine J. Fowers, Ph.D., Professor of Counseling Psychology, University of Miami, USA
Hermeneutic Approaches is a unique and thoughtful contribution to the intellectual life of psychology and all the social sciences. There is absolutely nothing of its kind in the world: it demonstrates in every chapter the deep connections between psychology, history, and philosophy, much to the chagrin of mainstream psychology's claim to be apolitical. This will gain significant traction with several audiences, especially as multicultural and qualitative research push from the margins into center stage.
David Goodman, Ph.D., Associate Dean, Boston College, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, USA; co-editor of Race, Rage, and Resistance: Philosophy, Psychology, and the Perils of Individualism
