Psychology has been the source of many ideas and interventions when it comes to professional practice. A major fork in the road occurred early in the discipline's history when most psychologists decided on a natural science over human science direction. This shift saw most psychologists aiming to explain human experience using methods and ideas one associates with the ‘hard sciences’: statistical prediction, ‘objectivity’ and knowledge readily adaptable to technological purposes. While psychologists tend not to wear labcoats these days, culturally many view psychology as the enterprise best positioned to deliver the foundational truths needed to guide such social practices as education, management strategies and policies, psychotherapy, even advertising. At the time of writing this book the American Psychological Association implicitly condones the participation of its members in ensuring scientifically warranted practices of torture.

Not every psychologist took the same direction at the fork in the road, of course, nor has the discipline ever abandoned the notion that its science and practices could be closer to those Vico or Dilthey might have envisioned.