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" Psychology, politics and policies : "
Riley, E. M. D.
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1092926
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| Doc. No
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TLets257776
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| Main Entry
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Riley, E. M. D.
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| Title & Author
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Psychology, politics and policies :\ Riley, E. M. D.
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| College
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University of Sussex
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| Date
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1980
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| student score
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1980
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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.The thesis argues that the relation between psychology andpolitics is a problem for marxist theory which cannot beanswered by the supposition that psychology acts at the serviceof the state. Instead it claims the need, firstly, for acritical examination of the concept of the biological in bothmarxist theories and in the theories of developmental psychology.This is carried out in the first chapter. The theoreticaldifficulties of child peychoLc gi os l.rere"i~}:i:1historicallyin the second and third chapters, which discuss the nineteenthcentury formations of observational psychology and the impactof psychoanalysis in both Britain and America. It is arguedthat the concept of popularisation is inadequate to explainthe coherence between particular social policy formations andpsychologies. The work of John Bowlb,yand of British Kleiniansis analysed as a case-study in this problem of coherence, andin the fourth chapter this psychological work is placed in thecontext of social policies on the family in wartime and postwarBritain. The general difficulty of posing an 'accord'between psychological and sociopolitical developments isillustrated with close reference to the history of governmentalpolicies on childcare provision, and these policies are thensituated with reference to the changing nature of the employmentmarket for·women in immediately post-war Britain. The fifthchapter is an analysis of the mutual appeals of psychology tohistory for authority at this period; it examines the effectsof pronatalism here. The ubi~uity of pronatalist discourseand the difficulties of pragmatic-materialist explanationsfor pOints of apparent social conservatism are both elaboratedas necessary to the case-study of the problem of 'accord'.The sixth and final chapter of the thesis returns to thegeneral problems of conceiving the·relations between psychology,politics and social policy formations in the light o~ thehistorical work of the preceding chapters. It discusses theconcept of ideology and its poss:ble re-working, whilerefusing its characterisation as a third term interveningbetween the State and psychology. In conclUSion, it sug~estsuses.of the suggested cate00ry of socialised biology, inclu~inguses for feminist theory and for materialist ethics.
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| Subject
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Psychology
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| Added Entry
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University of Sussex
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