THE STILL USEFUL CLASSIC CONCEPT OF DEVELOPMENT

Freud and Piaget offered American researchers well-formed theories of development grounded in 19th-century European experiences of failed de mocratic experiments. Their theories sought to comet overly optimistic views of human nature, rationality, and morality. Americans tended to see these theories differently, as cumbersome expressions of a dated biology that needed to be replaced by modern theories of learning and information management. The resulting gain in efficiency that these le arning theories achieve, however, is countered by a loss of interest i n the original social-historical problems that Freud and Piaget tried to solve regarding irrationality and centered thinking. Because these problems remain within Western society, efficient accounts have become increasingly unsatisfactory. Perhaps it is for this reason that resea rchers have turned to ideas in humanities and literary studies that ha ve remained concerned with understanding the limits and potential of h uman development through studies of persons in social-historical reali ty.