This book focuses on what other volumes have only touched on, that is the factors that contribute to the rise of certain persons and ideas in the field of psychology. Bringing together noted experts in the field, it describes the process of intellectual reconstructions that determines how we view historical events, and why some ideas die only to be reborn again, as well as why new ideas can quickly topple traditional views.

Reconstructing Psychology's Founding and Growth.- New Growth from Phantom Limbs.- Lost Classics and Forgotten Contributors.- Reinventing the Past through Reinterpretation.- High-Impact Research Programs in Psychology.- Tracking Trends in Psychological Science.- Comparative Psychology.- Becoming Big Frogs in a Small Pond.- The Psychology of Homo Sapiens: Changing Comparative Perspectives.- Cognitive Science and Consciousness.- How Otto Selz Became a Forerunner of the Cognitive Revolution.- Consciousness Regained.- Pragmatism, Individual and Social Development.- Myrtle McGraw, the Maturation Debate and Aftermath.- The Contemporary Reconstruction of Developmental Psychology.- Career Pathways and Professional Impact.- Beaking the Silence: Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley.- The Dynamics of Scientific and Cultural Change.- Prominence, Schools of Thought and Social Transformation.