Images of the invisible: An account of iconic media in the history of psychology

What epistemic use and function do images and graphs fulfill in scientific practice? Whilst this question is nowadays broadly discussed in the history of science, the history of psychology usually ignores the iconic material presented in textbooks, papers, and essays of the discipline’s past. Such habit of logo-centrism in the popular history of psychology seems all the more surprising, as contemporary psychology heavily relies on flow charts, statistic diagrams, tables, and other iconic elements. Following arguments of the science historian Ludwik Fleck, this paper aims to sharpen the awareness for the specific attributes and performative capacities of iconic media in the history of psychology. We start out discussing general aspects and specifics of graphical objects and their relation to scientific texts and then analyze some popular diagrams in the history of psychology accordingly. Altogether, we argue for an icon-informed history of science to gain a deeper understanding of the discipline’s past and present.