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Anti-capitalist political struggle is a site of struggling psychologies. Conscious political action is never far from unconscious desire, and the fight for material justice is always also the fight for dignity and psychological well-being. Yet, how might community psychologists conceive of their discipline in a way that opposes the very capitalist political economy that, historically, most of the psy-disciplines have bolstered in return for disciplinary legitimacy? In its consideration of an anti-capitalist psychology of community, this book does not ignore or try to resolve the contradictory position of such a psychology. Instead, it draws on these contradictions to enliven psychology to the shifting demands - both creative and destructive - of a community-centred anti-capitalism. Using practical examples, the book deals with the psychological components of building community-centred social movements that challenge neoliberal capitalism as a political system, an ideology, anda mode of governing rationality. The book also offers several theoretical contributions that grapple with how an anti-capitalist psychology of community can remain attentive to the psychological elements of anti-capitalist struggle; what the psychological can tell us about anti-capitalist politics; and how these politics can shape the psychological.
List of contents
Chapter 1: How should we understand an anti-capitalist psychology of community?.- Chapter 2: What is neoliberal capitalism? Three conceptions for an anti-capitalist psychology of community.- Chapter 3: Resisting the capitalist political project.- Chapter 4: Resisting capitalist ideology.- Chapter 5: Resisting capitalist rationality.- Chapter 6: hoping against history.
About the author
Nick Malherbe is a community psychologist interested in violence, visual methods, and discourse. He works with social movements, cultural workers, and young people. He is based in South Africa.
