Pop Psychology
It’s easy to roll our eyes at pop psych, especially when ideas from psychology are translated into into feel good, neoliberal, self-help books. But this meeting we dig deeper into the uses of pop psych. When is it political and when is it apolitical? Why is it more eagerly consumer by women, and can it ever be feminist? And how do we navigate the relationship and boundaries between “real” psychology and pop psychology, both today and in the past? When is psychology appropriated by culture, and when is culture appropriated by psychology? What does the self-help bestseller tell us about its surrounding culture?
Readings:
Susanne Schmidt, ‘The Anti-Feminist Reconstruction of the Midlife Crisis: Popular Psychology, Journalism and Social Science in 1970s USA’ Gender & History, Vol.30 No.1 March 2018, pp. 153–176.
Eleanor Cummins, "The Self-Help That No One Needs Right Now,” The Atlantic October 18, 2021 https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/10/trauma-books-wont-save-you/620421
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