Socialism or Psychology: Society at the Crossroads

Abstract

In a recent article, Bernice Lott suggests that modern psychology has failed to investigate in any systematic fashion existing beliefs and attitudes surrounding socialism. While there is much to commend in Lott's analysis, her support for a social democratic version of socialism tends to obscure the more revolutionary potentials of socialist practice. To adequately address social and environmental justice, I argue that the trajectory of psychological research and practice must be brought into alignment with a socialism that is committed to interrogating and ultimately destabilizing the capitalist mode of production.