Klaus Holzkamp in the Americas: A Personal Account

Abstract

As the editor of Mind, Culture, and Activity, the premier English-language journal committed to the cultural-historical approach, which actually bears this commitment in its name, I come to read many articles how scholars around the world theorize their research objects and activities. Few authors in our journal, if any in recent years, have drawn on the work of Klaus Holzkamp. In this article, I provide an account of my personal encounters with the work of Holzkamp and with some of the individuals who have known him or worked in his wake. I particularly focus on the intersections that I see with the works of other scholars, which I have known before and more extensively by the time I came to read the Grundlegung der Psychologie. These other works constitute a mediating element in my own reading and appreciation of Holzkamp. In contrast to others who see a decline in Critical Psychology and the work and agenda of Klaus Holzkamp, I believe that there remains a considerable amount of work to be done to bring his thoughts to fruition in and through a true process of dialectical materialist development.

Keywords

• dialectical materialism
• praxis
• theory
• method
• culture
• history
• society