In chapter 13, Kozol writes about the story of Martha, a determinist woman leading a church, and Benjamin, a boy with difficult family circumstances. This story is about the difficulty of growing up and tells us that it is possible to overcome difficulties with determination and help from those close to us. Several themes can be found within the theme of religion, the problem of drug addiction, and what it means to grow up in poverty. The most critical theme discussed in the reading is drug addiction which Benjamin experienced and his feeling of incompatibility with the outside world. This incompatibility stemmed from the habits developed in early childhood along with the lack of general education (illiteracy) (Kozol, 2012). This issue was described with apparent realism and filled with necessary hope that there is a chance at recovery despite the difficulty of the situation and a person’s uncooperativeness. Time will and compassion helped Benjamin to accept Martha not as a foster parent but as a real mother and overcome his addiction.
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (1832–1920) was a pivotal player in contemporary psychology’s development. By investigating the workings of the mind in a more systematic fashion, he distinguished psychology from philosophy, emphasizing objective measurement and control (Leahey, 2015). His research focused on studying the human mind through introspection, especially experimental introspection, as opposed to pure introspection, which he defined as somewhat unstructured self-observation utilized by earlier philosophers. He felt that consciousness may be reduced to its fundamental components without surrendering any of the features of the whole (Leahey, 2015). This view may appear simplistic in comparison to current psychology, but it offered an intriguing and original perspective to the relatively new area of human consciousness at the time. Nevertheless, this approach was a well-honed type of self-examination. He taught psychology students how to generate observations that were influenced by personal interpretation or prior experience and then utilized the data to create a theory of conscious thinking.
References
Kozol, J. (2012). Fire in the ashes: Twenty-five years among the poorest children in America. Crown.
Leahey, T. H. (2015). A history of psychology: From antiquity to modernity. Routledge.