A review by ralowe
Social Amnesia: A Critique of Contemporary Psychology by Russell Jacoby

5.0

i'd like to imagine the time period and audience russell jacoby directed his comments to as being the movement waning in the '70s from the '60s sense of indefatigable optimism inundated by disco and cynicism. that's unfair to disco. my lack of literacy in freud and marx -- or rather my minimal osmosed general understanding -- adjusted my apprehension of the topic. jacoby's treatment of marx is more of an aside (during which i had to ask a friend for clarity concerning whether marx believed in property; he does!, apparently), perhaps because the marxian frame is so deeply timestamped into his discursive context. it makes sense since marx traditionally is suspected of inspiring revolutionary activist action, and the need for function cadre is supported thusly. i guess i didn't realize how much freud accounts for contemplative hesitation, tripping, diffidence. jacoby's primary moral here is to make it clear to you that theory is not equivalent to therapy, is never attended to be. he figures freud's epigones as brat trying to muster a reparative easy way out from the patriarch. no dice. a glimpse of this genealogy illuminates a lot of thinkers i've found frustrating (edelman) where their inconsolable gripes grate and grate. boethius' *the consolation of philosophy* lamps on my shelf, and i'm suppressing the itch to let it maybe shed light on this reparative activist expectation from thought.