Steven James Bartlett

Steven James Bartlett (born 1945) is an American philosopher and psychologist notable for his studies in epistemology and the theory of reflexivity, and for his work on the psychology of human aggression and destructiveness, and the shortcomings of psychological normality. His findings challenge the assumption that psychological normality should serve as a standard for good mental health. He is the author or editor of more than 20 books and research monographs as well as many papers published in professional journals in the fields of epistemology, psychology, mathematical logic, and philosophy of science.

Biography Bartlett was born in Mexico City. He is the son of American author and artist Paul Alexander Bartlett and his wife, American poet Elizabeth Bartlett. Steven James Bartlett received his B.A. in 1965 from Raymond College, an Oxford-style honors college of the University of the Pacific, his M.A. in philosophy in 1968 from the University of California, Santa Barbara, his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1971 from the Université de Paris, and later engaged in postdoctoral study in clinical psychology at Saint Louis University, 1975–77, and Washington University in St. Louis, 1983–84.

Prior to high school, Bartlett attended schools both in the United States and in Mexico while his father undertook a study of some 350 haciendas throughout Mexico. Bartlett showed unusual aptitude, skipping a grade in grammar school, attending college concomitantly while still in high school, and completing his undergraduate degree in three years, followed by a succession of scholarships and fellowships during undergraduate and graduate study.

Recognition and importance Bartlett has received recognition in both disciplines of philosophy and psychology. He is the author or editor of more than 20 books and research monographs, and many papers published in professional journals. His research has been funded under grants by the National Science Foundation, the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, the Alliance Française, the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Lilly Endowment, and others. His work in both disciplines has been supported by well-known authors and researchers including Paul Ricoeur, Robert Hutchins, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Thomas Szasz, M. Scott Peck, Irving Greenberg,

In 2021, Bartlett's most extensive and complex work in philosophy was published, Critique of Impure Reason: Horizons of Possibility and Meaning. This massive study of nearly 900 pages develops and extends his earlier work relating to conceptual therapy and the metalogic of reference. Its principal objective is to formulate a logically compelling method that makes it possible to recognize the unavoidable boundaries—Bartlett calls these the "horizons"—of our conceptual frameworks so we may avoid the conceptual confusions that result when attempts are made to transgress beyond what is possible and meaningful. The Critique of Impure Reason then applies the method to a wide group of conceptually basic concepts (for example, space, time, causality, consciousness, the self, other minds, etc.) that play a central role in major philosophical questions and problems, and many of which are also relied upon in ordinary thinking and are used in the formulation of many scientific theories

Studies of reflexivity Bartlett has contributed to the field of study the general theory of reflexivity, which investigates the properties of systems capable of self-reference. In critical responses to the book, the study was commended by The Journal of Analytical Psychology: "Bartlett is a lucid, painstaking and illuminating writer. This is certainly a classic work of reference in the field." The Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic appraised the book as "a challenging and thought provoking approach that makes a significant contribution to an aspect of human psychopathology that is rarely or so comprehensively addressed." About the book, M. Scott Peck commented: "he study of evil is just beginning and you are a pioneer." Author and President of the Jewish Life Network Irving Greenberg commented: "This book is stunning, upsetting, gripping.... he book is a moral act of the highest order. These...comments would be incomplete without mentioning the erudition, the intellectual insight and playfulness, the gallows humor and the self-restraint which deepen and lighten this book."

Challenging the standard of psychological normality presupposed by contemporary psychiatry and much clinical psychology In 2011, Bartlett's book Normality Does Not Equal Mental Health: The Need to Look Elsewhere for Standards of Good Psychological Health was published.

Psychotherapy and its effectiveness Over a period of decades, Bartlett has weighed the question whether psychotherapy is truly effective. In 1987, his book When You Don't Know Where to Turn: A Self-Diagnosing Guide to Counseling and Therapy was published and subsequently adopted by the Psychology Today Book Club and the Psychotherapy Book Club. The book presents a self-diagnosing algorithm to help readers identify, based on effectiveness studies, potentially most promising forms of therapeutic care. The algorithm takes into account individual symptoms, circumstances, personality, and life goals. about which psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, a long-time critic of psychiatry, commented: "It is one of the best, if not the best, that I have read on this subject."

The psychology of higher education and burn-out among liberal arts faculty Bartlett studied these issues in a series of published papers that seek to explain faculty demoralization that can result from deteriorating conditions affecting the state of higher education in America.

The psychology of animal rights Bartlett published a psychological and epistemological analysis of the blocks that prevent the majority of people from recognizing and respecting the sentience of members of other species. The study, "Roots of Human Resistance to Animal Rights: Psychological and Conceptual Blocks," was developed within a legal framework in order to make evident the ways in which human laws have reflected the underlying psychological and conceptual blocks to compassionate treatment of non-human animals. Bartlett was later invited by Brazil's Ministry of Education to address the International Congress on Animal Rights, Salvador, Brazil, Oct. 8–11, 2008. For use at the Congress, "Roots of Human Resistance to Animal Rights" was translated into Portuguese and then published.

The psychology of creativity Bartlett's studies relating to the nosology of mental illness and his critique of the assumption that psychological normality should be equated with good mental health led him to examine the psychology of creative individuals.

Psychological studies of philosophy With training and research in psychology and philosophy, Bartlett has undertaken a psychological examination both of philosophy as a discipline and of philosophers as a psychologically characterizable group. Related to this work, Bartlett has sought to identify and describe "epistemological intelligence" as a distinguishable variety of human intelligence, one which he explains is especially important to philosophers. In this context, he has sought to understand the challenges posed by the psychological profile of philosophers that can obstruct the development and implementation of the skills associated with epistemological intelligence.