Un acceso de fiebre milenarista

Abstract

As an introduction to the present thematic issue of the Anuario de Psicologia, the author, indulging in the millenarist mood at the approach of the year 2000, presents some reflections on the present state of psychology and on future prospects. In spite of the fragmentation of psychology into multiple subfields, he points to some signs towards recovering unity. Attention is given especially to current trends towards restoring the importance of emotion and motivation, of action and of environmental factors, the place of which had been reduced or neglected by extreme cognitivism. Although the traditional confl'ict as to the roots -biological or cultural- of human nature is far from being solved, a new way to look at variations, both interindividual and intraindividual, offers a possibility to reconcile the biological and socio-historical dimensions, and also to face the muny problems challenging applied psychology in the future. Emphasis is made on the increasing need for pluridisciplinarity, for better communication within psychology, for more eficient and earlier information and education of the public ut large as to what psychology is about. Given the impossibility to predict what changes human nature might undergo during the next centuries, recommandations are made to maximaljlexibility, and readiness to deal with humans fully shaped by virtual reality, eventually in need of virtual psychologists.