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Psychoanalysis and Political Thought
Psychology, in its various guises, is concerned with the psychic characteristics and capabilities of human subjects both as individuals and as members of groups, institutions, and societies. Political thought has always made assumptions about human psychology. However, with the development of psychology as a clinical and academic field, political and social theorists have frequently turned to one or another psychological theory to supplement their analyses of political life. Psychology has been turned to in order to fill a gap in analyses that relies unduly on either simple assumptions about the strength of human reason or, alternatively, that treat human subjects as structural or cultural dupes or dopes, by presuming a thoroughgoing determination of subjectivity by the economy, the culture, or any other structure. This corrective ...
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