Social Psychology and the Ancient World

Methods and Applications
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-73128-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 8, 406 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 767 g

Reihe: Euhormos: Greco-Roman Studies in Anchoring Innovation

Social Psychology and the Ancient World: Methods and Applications fosters an interdisciplinary dialogue between classics and social psychology. Classicists use modern social-psychological insights to interpret ancient texts, while social psychologists engage with classical case studies to refine their own conceptual frameworks. This dialogue unfolds through an innovative structure: thematic sections introduced by social psychologists are paired with wide-ranging case studies by classicists, covering topics such as the psychology of tragic characters, comedic group dynamics, and the cognitive processes at play in oracles and deification. The volume offers methodological guidance for reconstructing the social psychology of past societies, addressing questions like: How did ancient Greeks understand character? How did laughter shape social cohesion? What role did emotional contagion play in narratives? How did ancient societies accommodate religious innovation? And above all: how do we know, and how can we properly investigate such questions?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Huitink, Luuk

Glaveanu, Vlad

Sluiter, Ineke

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword

Preface

Notes on Contributors

1 Introduction: How to Do the Social Psychology of the Ancient World Luuk Huitink and Ineke Sluiter

Part 1: The Psychology of Selfhood: Character and Individual

Introduction to Part 1: the Psychology of Selfhood Now and Then Sandra Jovchelovitch

2 Taming the Extraordinary: Shifting Motives and the Psychology of Tragic Actors Sheila Murnaghan

3 Individuals or Types? Ancient Criticism and Modern Psychology on Characterization in Greek Tragedy Evert van Emde Boas

Part 2: Social Representations: the Role of Comedy and Satire

Introduction to Part 2: Social Representation in Practice Gordon Sammut

4 Innovation, Group Psychology and the Comic Dêmos Alexandra Hardwick

5 “Not by Others but by Our Own Feathers”: a Social-Psychological Reading of Aristophanes’ Birds Xenia Makri

6 Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Satire: Rethinking the Laughter of Derision Ralph M. Rosen

Part 3: Narrative Meaning-Making

Introduction to Part 3: Narrative Meaning-Making Max J. van Duijn

7 Emotional Contagion, Empathy, and Sympathy as Responses to Verbal and Visual Narratives: Some Conceptual and Methodological Issues Douglas Cairns

8 The Experience of Coincidence in Euripides’ Ion Jacqueline Klooster

9 Finding Orestes: Oracles and Abductive Reasoning Michiel van Veldhuizen

Part 4: Imagination, Creativity, and Innovation

Introduction to Part 4: Imagination, Creativity, and Innovation across the Ages Vlad P. Glaveanu

10 Playing Make-Believe with Objects: Counterfactual Imagination and Psychodrama in Greek Tragedy Anne-Sophie Noel

11 The Posthumous Future in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus Karen Bassi

Part 5: Accommodating New Concepts

Introduction to Part 5: Possibilities of Existence—Making and Changing Subjectivities and (Ancient) Worlds Paula Castro

12 How the Ancient World Learned to Sin David Konstan

13 Anchoring Religious Innovation: the Social Psychology of Deification in Athens 307 BCE Thomas R. Martin

14 Cyrus’ Learning Curve Views of Adolescent Psychology in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia Luuk Huitink and Eveline Crone

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Luuk Huitink, PhD 2013, is Associate Professor of Ancient Greek at the University of Amsterdam. His research combines cognitive, linguistic and narratological approaches to Greek literature. He is, among other things, co-editor of Experience, Narrative and Criticism in Ancient Greece (OUP 2020).

Vlad Glaveanu, PhD (2012), is Full Professor of Psychology in the School of Psychology at Dublin City University and Adjunct Professor in the Centre for the Science of Learning and Technology at Bergen University. He is an expert in creativity, culture, wonder, collaboration, and possibility studies.

Ineke Sluiter, FBA, PhD 1990, is Distinguished Professor of Greek at Leiden University. Her latest publications include ‘Situated Cognition: Sophocles, Milgram, and the Disobedient Hero’ (with Bob Corthals), in: Felix Budelmann & Ineke Sluiter (eds.) Minds on Stage. Greek Tragedy and Cognition. OUP 2023.

Contributors are: Karen Bassi, Douglas Cairns, Paula Castro, Eveline Crone, Max van Duijn, Evert van Emde Boas, Vlad Glaveanu, Alexandra Hardwick, Luuk Huitink, Sandra Jovchelovitch, Jacqueline Klooster, David Konstan, Xenia Makri, Thomas R. Martin, Sheila Murnaghan, Anne-Sophie Noel, Ralph M. Rosen, Gordon Sammut, Ineke Sluiter, Michiel van Veldhuizen.