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Presentation of a new Theory

In his introduction, Kelly introduces some interesting ideas about the presentation of a new theory:

"...it is only fair to warn the reader that he will find missing many of the familiar landmarks of psychology theory." [p. xi]

"...this new way of thinking about psychology..." [p. xi]

"It is not only these terms that are abandoned; what is more important, the concepts themselves evaporate." [p. xi]

"...a different approach calls for a different lexicon." [p. xii]


"It may be unreasonable, merely on the basis of a few pages of academic prose, to ask a reader to reconsider his notions of why man does what he does. yet that is the burden of this invitation. To respond, one should prepare himself as best he can to surmount some formidable barriers---bariers raised high by more than two thousand years of constructive thought and held rigidly in place by the only languages we speak aloud." [p. xii]

"...this may come as a frightening invitation to those who have entrusted themselves wholly to external things which they assume are beyond reexamination..." [p. xii]

"...to give oneself over to a reconsideration of his views is not necessarily to abandon the old and embrace the new, nor does man always need to suppress what is novel in order to conserve what is familiar." [p. xii]

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