A review of 'Psychology and Society, Radical Theory and Practice, Edited by lan Parker and Russell Spears (Pluto Press, 1996). PSYCHOLOGY and Marxism do not mix.
This is a commonly held view of many who have come into contact with psychology in many of its forms. For one thing, it is a science that is historically committed to the study of the individual human being the watch ones conceive eula nations or solutions.
Psychological theory and practice have been often been trumpeted by the tar nukat (ck. byscacks work on the connection berween race and IQ) or have been used as heavy handed instruments of social control (eg. in the use of harmful drugs Freud, although seen by some as a liberal in breaking taboos surround. ing mental iliness or sexuality, also talked of gay people as being "vic tims of this one fatal perversion". The institute for Psychoanalysis does not allow gay people to train as Psychomerapists cron toody Against this generally reactionary grain Psychology and Society cuts with a blade sharpened on many decades of work by psychologists on the left. In this one volume, edited by radical psychologists lan Parker and Russell Spears, varied attempts to show that a radical, emancipatory psychology is por sible, that a mix of the unmixables can be useful for both psychology and marxism.
Martin Roiser and Carla Willig from Thames Valley University highlight the history of working class psychology from the time of Working class This rich vein of pro-working class psychology was highlighted at the 1996 Conference of the Psychology Section of the British Psychology Society in a special session on Marxism and Psychology.
Research by Engels and Marx, for example, into the working conditions of the working class (eg. in The Condition of the Working Class in England) included a questionnaire for French workers entitled the Enauette Oscuriere Although most of the 100 ques. Roiser and Willig show how this class consciousness and alienation. This work was taken un and given an extra psychological dimension in and it was in Germany that the radical Frankurt scaoo, was formica in 1922.
his school is oest known for the work of Fromm, Marcuse, Weiss "Of course you're depressed.
I'm very expensive" and Adorno and includes work on the causes of fascism both at the level of the state and at the psychoual 'authoritarian' personality The initial intent of the Frankures of German Social Democracy and this was done largely along Marxist lines, mainly untainted by Stalinism.
In portraying late capitalism as the cause of authoritarian personalities Fromm (in the famous fear of Freedom) drew perhaps overly pessi 1138 C08OS Nonetheless the work on the authoritarian personality by Adorno et al in the USA became a highlv influential in examining the nature and causes of prejudice, al. oct one waica cnaca to rcinforce notions of individuality by focusing on personality differences.
Radical Psychology rcappeared strongly in Germany in the 1960s, centring in the Free University of Berlin and led by the influential Klaus Holzkamp. This movement.
In nineteen chapters there are many more match them! as part of student uprisings across Europe in the 1960s, made a huge contribution in renewing a Critical Psychology, largely through rejuvenating the application of Marxism to Psycholorv, Sadiy little of this work is in the curriculum of British undereraduate Psychology degrees More recently, the rise of postmodernist thought during the 1980k has allowed Critical Psychology to regain a foothold and to grow again after a barren period in the 1970s when many radical osvchologists were forced out of universities in Britain. The strand chold of reduc tionism, in the form of cognitive psychology, became ever tighter.
An important issue today is the structuralist thinkers, like Foucault, can oc usca postwyciy in acycloping a truly radical psychology (see Gane 1980, sholet o Parker 1990) I al issue is dealt with both directly and indirectly in Prychology and Society (for example the chapter by KumKum Bhavnani and Angela Davis on strategies for women prisoners).
The truly remarkable aspect of Prychology O Sociry is its diversity. In nineteen chapters there are many perspectives and more than nineccn sypes or marxism to matco them!
New versions It is not surprising that some of the versions of both would not be Iccognisca as such by some of these who define theniselves as either Marxists or Psychologists.
This is not a criticism, but is instead indicative of the many brave attempts to fuse Psychology and Marxism together found within the book.
take toe chapter oyscrome Ul man. Benaviourism, as personitica in the work of people such as Pavlov, Watson and Skinner, has been largely discredited within modern Psychology. For Marxists, the emselection as a driving force in behavlour has often made them dismiss behaviourist ideas (as with genetic This is particularly true for those who have broken with the official stalinist line, which was heavily beup humanistic ideas in Marxism of Ulman, for his part, prefers, as a "behaviourologist", to sce sclection (there is less mention of the "natuTal y as part or a special araiccucal law of the movement of living matter, from that of a single cell to a social formation composed of millions of people.
It is worth wondering how dialec. tical such a relationship might be if neither the cell nor the social forma. tion is aware of the function of the other (which is still the case for brain function where location for function is still a mysicay. Prozad works because of a chemical change, actually represent in human, social After all, dialectical logic does wooden variety that is favoured by empiricists. Ulman celebrates how "selectionism" has removed the focus from the internal cognitive states (such as memory and processing) but it is worrying that in doing so the concept of subjectivity may have been lost altogether.
The positive aspects of Uman's approach involve the abandonment ween the physical and mental and which is critically discussed in the murst chapter oy baware Reca (things in themselves can never be known, only there interpreted appearance. Hence the need for a cognitive SOCHE do the interpreting)
These problems appear to bedevil the attemot by RD Hinse wood to show possible convergences beThese centre firstly on the Marxist ideas of depersonalisation. tion of surplus value (based on the activities in the form of commodigroups involving aspects of personal identity that are also being "circulated".
This second convergence relies on the supposed dualism between plagued attempts at a radical social psychology and also reinforces the internal - external dualism found in much psychology. While Hinsel. wood has some fascinating insights into possible overlaps between Freudian and Marxist thought, the chapter is weakened by the fact that the anti-psychiatry movement of the 1960s, led by RD Laing, is comThis movement is still present today (including in Laing's Philadel. phia Association) and it has made pects of Marxist and psychoanalytic thrust to it).
Almost inevitably it is possible to accuse Parker and Spears of leaving out certain critical traditions within Psychology:
Despite covering a vast terrain, it is a shame that Laing's contribution is not featured and that room was not found for the work of Taite. and Turner on explaining the basis for prejudice and stercosyping The book does contain some extions psychologists can make for soctal change by ben bradicy and Jane Selby) and on empowerment (by Mark Burton and Carolyn Kagan). There is even a chapter by lan Parker on the contribution to a revolutionary psychology by Trotsky!
Parker and Spears arranged for Ernest Mandel to write a concluding chapter for Prychology and Society, a contribution which was halted by his untimely death in July 1995. The book is dedicated to Mandel and is a fitting testament to him. to the question of whither a marxist psychology and I suspect that any such Psychology, bereft of its formal logic and bourgeois conceptions would be psychology, maybe, but not as we now know it.
Radical
Until that day and as a step to getting there, Steve Reicher concludes Psychology and Socinly by discussing the ways in which radical psychologists are already fighung back now both in developing theory and in the The organisation "Politics, Psy. cholony ano Resistance is committed to fighting the oppressive uses of psychology and aims to "promote the development and dissemination of emancipatory psychologies in opto oppressive practices of all kinds".
These are aims that all Marxists should support in remembering that, in overthrowing capitalism we aim to create "an association, in which the tree development of each is the condition of the free development of all" (Marx & Engels, The Communis Manifesto).
PEATURES IZ