This book builds on two current developments in psychology scholarship and practice. The first centers on broad discontent with the individualist tradition in which the rational agent, or autonomous self, is considered the fundamental atom of social life. Critique of individualism spring not only from psychologists working in the academy, but also from communities of therapy and counseling. The second, and related development from which this work builds, is the search for alternatives to individualist understanding. Thus, therapists such as Steve Mitchell, along with feminists at the Stone Center, expand the psychoanalytic tradition to include a relational orientation to therapy. The present volume will give voice to the critique of individualism, but its major thrust is to develop and illustrate a far more radical and potentially exciting landscape of relational thought and practice that now exists. Most existing attempts to build a relational foundation remain committed to a residual form of individualist psychology. The present work carves out a space of understanding in which relational process stands prior to the very concept of the individual. More broadly, the book attempts to develop a thoroughgoing relational account of human activity. In doing so, Gergen reconstitutes 'the mind' as a manifestation of relationships and bears out these ideas in a range of everyday professional practices, including family therapy, collaborative classrooms, and organizational psychology.

本书作者肯尼思•J.格根（Kenneth J. Gergen，1935— ），国际知名心理学家，美国斯沃思摩尔学院资深教授，并先后在多所世界著名大学担任客座教授。格根先生是后现代社会建构论的奠基人与倡导者，国际社会建构论研究中心美国陶斯研究院的创始人之一，兼任该院董事会主席。其研究涉及自我叙事、社会建构、关系理论、文化批判等人文和社会科学诸多领域，著作三十余部，论文近400篇，先后被译成十几个国家的文字。这些成果和著述为他赢得了众多奖项和世界性声誉。

本书译者杨莉萍博士，南京师范大学心理学院教授、博士生导师，江苏省社区心理学专业委员会副主任，中国心理学会社区心理学专业委员会理事；中国心理学会理论心理学与心理学史专业委员会理事；中国心理学会质化研究方法专业委员会（筹）理事。长期研究社会建构论心理学，关注以社会建构论为方法论导向的心理学质化研究，积极倡导和尝试采用质化方法探索社会心理问题，在心理学专业刊物发表论文100余篇，出版《社会建构论心理学》等多部教材和著作，主持并完成多项省部级以上重点科研课题，获得省级科研奖多项。