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Changing psychologies in the transition from industrial society to consumer society

Department of Psychology, University of Aarhus, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark, svendb{at}psy.au.dk

Psychologists have traditionally been reluctant to investigate not just the historical nature of their subject matter — humans as acting, thinking and feeling beings — but even more so the historical nature of their discipline, its theories and practices. In this article, I will try to take seriously the historical transformation in the West from industrial society to consumer society. After having introduced these socio-economic designations, I shall try to illustrate how the transformation relates to changes in significant societal practices with a particular attention to education and work. Since its inception, psychology has been deeply involved in the management of human beings in and through these practices, and considerable changes have taken place in the dominant psychologies with the change from industrial to consumer society. I interpret psychoanalysis and behaviourism as psychologies of industrial society, and humanistic psychology and the more recent wave of social constructionism as psychologies of consumer society. With shifting psychologies also come shifting life problems and pathologies, which I briefly address.

Key Words: behaviourism • consumer society • humanistic psychology • psychoanalysis • social constructionism • social imaginary

History of the Human Sciences, Vol. 21, No. 2, 85-110 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0952695108091412


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