The Psychological Mystique (Rethinking Theory) - Hardcover

Justman, Stewart

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810116014 ISBN 13: 9780810116016

Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 1998

Synopsis

The Psychological Mystique weighs the extraordinary influence of psychology on culture, traces the therapeutic model to its roots, and examines the connection between psychology and the marketing of goods and ideas. Justman finds that psychology's influence has saturated contemporary life both public and private. Thoughtful and at times sardonic, this study links psychology both to the mass production of goods and the propagation of clichés.

About this title

About the Author

Stewart Justman is a professor in the Liberal Studies Program at the University of Montana. He is the author of Fool's Paradise: The Unreal World of Pop Psychology (Ivan R. Dee, 2005), Seeds of Mortality (Ivan R. Dee, 2003), and The Springs of Liberty (1999) and The Psychological Mystique (1998), both published by Northwestern University Press. He is the recipient of the 2004 PEN Award for the Art of the Essay.

Reviews

Justman (English, Univ. of Montana), who has written books on Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, here takes a harsh view of psychology as it has come to shape our personal and social lives. Chapters deal with Edward Bernays (public relations), Stanley Milgram's obedience research, Herbert Marcuse (political psychology), Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Dostoevsky, Orwell, Locke, and Milton. Justman indicts the insidious blandness of diagnosis and treatment that displaces decorum, moral judgment, and responsibility. Erudite, clear, and hard-hitting, this is consciouness-raising in the best sense by a scholar versed in literature, history, and philosophy whose thematic integration of diverse materials is dazzling. What is missing is an acknowledgment of psychological writers?Otto Rank, Erik Erikson, Thomas Szasz, Robert Jay Lifton?who have kept moral principles in mind. Recomended for scholars and general readers interested in psychology, modern culture, and social criticism.?E. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington, DC
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810116014
• ISBN 13: 9780810116016
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 181