Meanwhile, a major focus in philosophy, literature, art, and the other humanities is a shift from modernism to postmodernism. The modern and postmodern movements are complex, multi-dimensional, and difficult to define. They appear different in different fields. For example, postmodern architecture may end up having little to do with postmodern philosophy. Nevertheless, we can identify some general characteristics as they apply to psychology.
Modernism is based on materialism, positivism, quantification, utilitarianism, and reductionism.
Its goal is progress through technology, control, and manipulation, and its mechanistic underpinnings lead to a disenchantment of nature. There is no place for the sacred or the mysterious. Modernism and its mechanistic, technological project is at the root of the desacralization of the modern world. Postmodernism is a sharp contrast to this description of modernism. Deconstructive postmodernism seeks to undo all claims toward ultimate knowledge and truth.