Book 1. Introduction

I. The fields, the problems and the methodsof developmental psychology.

• The fields of a comparative developmental psychology
• The basic problems of developmental psychology
• Mechanistic and organic approach in ethnopsychology: The concept of cultural patterns and creative change
• The remaining developmental psychologies
• The comparative point of view and the problem of genetic parallelism
• The relation of general experimental psychology to comparative developmental psychology
• The nature of development
• A more precise definition of some important concepts of developmental psychology

Book 2. Primitive mental activities

Part one: Sensori-motor, perceptual and affective organization

II. The syncretic character of primitive organization

• Things of action
• Primitive perception as dynamic: “physiognomic perception”
• Undifferentiated phenomena within the sphere of emotion
• Lack of differentiation in primordial perception
• Synaesthesia and the primordial unity of the senses

III. Diffuse forms of sensorimotor and perceptual organization

• Diffuse organization in lower organisms
• Inflexibility (rigidity) and inconstancy in lower organization
• Diffuse perceptual organization in the child
• Diffuse perceptual-motor organization in the child
• Lability and rigidity in the sensori-motor and perceptual organization of the child
• The development of constancies
• Diffuse phenomena in the world of primitive man
• Lability and rigidity in the concrete world of primitive man

Part two: Primitive imagery

IV. Syncretic and diffuse organization in imagery

• Syncretism of function in imagery
• Syncretism of meaning in primitive imagery
• Diffuse organization in primitive imagery

Part three: Primitive notions of space and time

V. Primitive notions of space

• Spatial ideas of primitive man
• The child’s notion of space
• Pathological primitivation of the idea of space

VI. Primitive notions of time

• Temporal notions of primitive man
• The child’s notion of time
• Pathological primitivation of the notion of time

Part four: Primitive action

VII. The nature of syncretic action: Action as bound to the concrete situation

• Immediacy
• Motivation
• Planning

VIII. The diffuse character of primitive action

• Mass activity and un-coordination as two typical characteristics of primitive movement
• Diffuseness and rigidity (all or none reaction in primitive action)

Part five: Primitive thought processes

IX. Conception

• The nature of syncretic thought
• Analogous processes in the development of thought
• Primitive forms of relationship
• Concrete grouping as an analogous process of concept formation and classification
• Primitive abstraction
• Analogous processes of abstraction
• The development of generalization in conceptual thinking
• Primitive representation
• Primitive stages of naming
• Physiognomic language
• The content of names and their development
• Primary development of the number idea as an illustration of concept formation

X. The primary structure of thought

• Structure of thought in primitive man
• The structure of child thought
• Conceptual relations
• The child’s causal reasoning and its development
• The development of the child’s logical inference
• Pathologically primitive forms of thought

XI. The fundamental ideas of magic as an expression of primitive conceptualization

• Syncretism in primitive magic
• Diffuseness in primitive magic
• The nature of magic things
• Conceptualization in magic
• Child magic
• The magic forms of pathological individuals

Book 3. The world and personality

XII. Primitive worlds and spheres of reality

• The worlds of animals
• The general character of the child’s world
• The spheres of the child’s reality
• The primitive man’s worlds and spheres of reality
• Pathological (schizophrenic) spheres of reality

XIII. Primitive personality

• The primitive man’s ideas of personality
• The child’s personality
• The pathologically primitive (schizophrenic) structure of the personality

Addenda

Bibliography

Index