The Psychological Mystique (Rethinking Theory)

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The Dow Jones average crossing new highs is hailed as a psychological breakthrough. Athletes consult sports psychologists. Therapists practice over the radio. Psychology supplies our common language. What does this mean?Stewart Justman's 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 saturated contemporary life both public and private. He tracks the expansion of the therapeutic project from its beginnings in Locke and considers reflections on and of psychology in the works of a number of authors, including Orwell, Conrad, and Dostoevsky.Yet the central figure in Justman's work is the little-known Edward Bernays, the nephew of Freud and father of public relations in America. It is Bernays, Justman argues, who defines the psychological style of our consumer society.Thoughtful and at times sardonic, this study links psychology both to the mass production of goods and the propagation of cliches.