Glass Beads: Towards an Alternative Approach to the Science of Social Psychology

In Hermann Hesse's novel Magister Ludi, scholars in the future kingdom of Castalia play the Glass Bead Game. The players carry the patterns of relationships they find in works of art, music, literature, science, philosophy, mathematics, and history through patterns of transformations, finding joy in the counterpoint of expectations met, shattered, and met anew. The novel's own counterpoint lies in the thesis and antithesis of Castalia and the world, and the search of Joseph Knecht, Master of the Game, for the resolving theme. We find a similar dialectic in Pitirim Sorokin's theory of cultural mentalities. He contrasts the Sensate-worldly, materialistic, empirical--with the Ideational-spiritual, realistic, faithful. Each has its virtues and its viceso Sorokin does, however, offer us a respite from these partial mentalities, in the infrequent Idealistic. This variety blends faith and empiricism with reason, In my opinion, the Idealistic Mind finds its ultimate expression in Spinoza. Some time has past since then, and the pendulum has gone through its periods once or twice. It seems to me that psychology has suffered both from mechanism and scientific spiritualism, as well as from awkward combinations. Although the e~tremes have contributed to understanding and will continue to do so, they suffer in their effectiveness by splitting the scientist. This thesis is a small attempt at rejoining the objective and the subjective, the secular and the spiritual, the mind and the body, an attempt at mending at least one scientist. Whether or not it is successful is left to the judgement of the reader. If nothing elseg I hope it brings the possibility of this Idealistic alternative to the attention of a better mind than mine.Psycholog