Idols of the Psychologist

In this chapter, our focus is on the posthumously published, and for some, controversial, Idolen van de Psycholoog (Idols of the Psychologist). In the Introduction (Sect. 9.1), we discuss the intriguing imagery Linschoten used in the frontispiece of his book. In Sect. 9.2, we take a closer look at his discussion of accountability, the chapter with which Linschoten started. In Sect. 9.3, we look at his chapter on participants in psychological experiments, and in Sect. 9.4 on the psychologist as an instrument. Section 9.5 discusses “Artifacts” and Sect. 9.6 “Second Nature,” two related issues for Linschoten. Section 9.7 focuses on “By way of speaking,” which serves as a prelude to his final chapter on homo ex machina, discussed in Sect. 9.8 9.9. In the following sections, we zoom out and provide a broader view of the place his Idolen took or should have taken in the landscape of psychology. In Sect. 9.10, we delve into whether Linschoten actually moved away from phenomenology and in Sect. 9.11, we consider the changed landscape of psychology in the years following the publication of Idolen. Section 9.9 contains our conclusion of this chapter.