Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

624 The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology
“cultivating incomplete people.” Psyche is little acknowledged—reduced to intellect alone. The
disciplines of study, which in their truest embodiment are foundations for nourishing the mind
and heart, are rather stripped of this power in an emphasis on things like outcomes, assessments,
or performance indicators. Even study, once a soulful endeavor engaging the inner life, is reduced
to the amassing of “factoids” or the finding of answers to questions students have not asked, nor
about which they care. Subjects not readily subsumed under the rubric of science or subject to
systematization tend to be undervalued in the educational system—increasingly so as students
progress through their schooling. In addition, the important role of the imagination in science is
unacknowledged, as well as the use of metaphor in the presentation of its findings. Left out of
the equation in mathematics is its core, which involves the provocative and inspired search for a
language to express the invisible and infinite, its part in the cosmic design. Science becomes facts,
math becomes measures, and psyche becomes known solely through productions prescribed by
others.
Educational psychology, in this way, cultivates educational thought and practice that is onesided,
narrow, and ultimately ineffectual. Having utterly lost sight of Psyche, it by in large sets
forth a perspective and pedagogy that has very little to do with understanding or educating Psyche
at all, that actively and unwittingly works to exclude her and hide her from view. In our heart of
hearts, and mind of minds, however, we feel and know it might be otherwise, that Psyche may
in fact be sought and actually found—a fairest-of-all treasure without measure. We must, then,
remind ourselves thus, and turn to this promise and possibility, as well, in our seeking.
REFERENCES
Huebner, D. (1999). The Lure of the Transcendent. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Neville, B. (1992). Educating Psyche: Emotion, Imagination and the Unconscious in Learning. North
Blackburn, Victoria: Collins Dove.
Venn, C. (1984). The Subject of Psychology. In J. Henriques, W. Holloway, C. Ururin, C. Venn., and V.
Walkerdine (Eds.), Changing the Subject: Psychology, Social Regulation and Subjectivity. London:
Methuen.