It is argued that the crisis in social psychology over the past decade has historical roots in J. F. Brown's social psychology of the 1930s. Brown's approach was based on an integration of Lewin, Marx, and Freud, and is seen as especially relevant to current suggestions to reconstruct the discipline in terms of understanding social behavior in its political, ideological, and historical context. An evaluation of Brown's contribution is considered within the context of the 1930s and within the contemporary context.