Psychology and Politics: Intersections of Science and Ideology in the History of Psy-Sciences

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Psychology and Politics: Intersections of Science and Ideology in the History of Psy-Sciences

edited by Ferenc Eros, Júlia Gyimesi and Anna Borgos

Central European University Press, 2019

ISBNs

Cloth: 978-963-386-312-1

eISBN: 978-963-386-677-1 (ePub)

eISBN: 978-963-386-282-7 (PDF)

About the Book

Psy-sciences (psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, pedagogy, criminology, special education, etc.) have been connected to politics in different ways since the early twentieth century. Here in twenty-two essays scholars address a variety of these intersections from a historical perspective.
The chapters include such diverse topics as the cultural history of psychoanalysis, the complicated relationship between psychoanalysis and the occult, and the struggles for dominance between the various schools of psychology. They show the ambivalent positions of the "psy" sciences in the dictatorships and authoritarian regimes of Nazi Germany, East European communism, Latin-American military dictatorships, and South African apartheid, revealing the crucial role of psychology in legitimating and "normalizing" these regimes.

The authors also discuss the ideological and political aspects of mental health and illness in Hungary, Germany, post-WW1 Transylvania, and Russia. Other chapters describe the attempt by critical psychology to understand the production of academic, therapeutic, and everyday psychological knowledge in the context of the power relations of modern capitalist societies.

About the Author

Ferenc Eros DSc is Professor Emeritus at the Doctoral School of Psychology, University of Pécs, Hungary.

Júlia Gyimesi ia Associate Professor at the Department of Personality and Clinical Psychology, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Budapest.

Anna Borgos is Research Fellow is Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Reviews

"While the psy-sciences (psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, pedagogy, criminology, special education, etc.) have been studied from historical and political angles before, this volume stands out in its distinct focus on the specifics of the process in Central and Eastern Europe. On the one hand, this part of the world represents the intellectual cradle of psychoanalysis. On the other, much less is known about the biographies and conceptual developments associated with specific individuals, in particular as their thought and activities confronted changing regimes and ideologies. An especially productive aspect of Psychology and Politics is its engagement with primary historical sources around the development of early psychoanalysis and psychology. The most compelling essays in this collection manage to successfully attend to the tension between individual fates and ideas, and larger historical forces. It is interesting to see how now, in times of increasing populism and nationalism, we are turning to the experience of these countries, following how they grapple with attacks on academic subjects such as gender studies, for example, or intellectual freedoms in general, in solidarity as well as out of a desire to learn from their experiences of resisting contemporary structures of authority."
-- Psychoanalysis and History