From ‘Psychology in Literature’ to ‘Psychology is Literature’ An Exploration of Boundaries and Relationships

Three categories, varying from lowest to highest levels of abstraction, of possible relationships between psychology and literature are critically examined. The first category represents the lowest level of abstraction and involves ‘psychology in literature’: literature as a source of psychological data; literature as a source of insights for psychology. The second involves literature as an independent variable; literature as a dependent variable; literature as understood through psychology. The third, at the highest level of abstraction, involves psychology as nomothetic and literature as idiographic; psychology as culture-free and literature as culture-bound; psychology as concerned with actual worlds and literature with possible worlds; and, finally, ‘psychology is literature’. Each option is viable at a particular level of abstraction, although ‘psychology is literature’ is particularly provocative, and also nurturing of cultural research.