Damaged Life The Crisis of the Modern Psyche

9780415043526

0415043522

Psychology ignores socio-cultural changes, just as individuals we ignore them every day. We feel that no-longer-so-shocking daily tragedies in the news and the ups and downs of the economy don't really effect what we do at work, what the kids will be doing after school or how our newest dating partner will shape up. Although the social process or modernization has been a major force in shaping psychology as a discipline, there is little if anything on modernity in psychology. In Modernity and the Psyche Tod Sloan shows how seemingly remote issues impact on all our lives. How capitalist industrialization has had a bearing on family life, personal experience and intimate relationships. Tod Sloan explores the power relationship between Western civilisation and third world countires and how it too shapes our personalities and our psychologies. He also acknowledges that our world is not just modern, but postmodern and discusses the implicatons of postmodernist theory for psychology. This book should be read by all those studying or working with psychology and related disciplines such as sociology and social policy.