Social Amnesia: A Critique of Contemporary Psychology Book

I found this among my mom's old books from her Marriage & Family Therapy graduate studies, and am so glad I picked it up. Jacoby presents a critique of responses to Freudian psychoanalytic theory that depend on incomplete/revisionist readings of Freud and dull the political potential of psychoanalysis even as they are trying to advance a leftist politic in their work. What's at stake is an accurate understanding of the interplay of social structures and individual psychological experience, and I found the theory Jacoby advances to be very compelling.

I'm giving it four stars because Jacoby does not mention feminism or critical race theory even once. I know for a fact there were Marxist feminist and post-colonial scholars working during his time that were theorizing on similar topics (Fanon comes to mind), and I would have liked to see him engage and acknowledge their work a little when outlining Critical Theory as an alternative to "conformist psychology."

Still very glad I read this book, though. It has a lot of insight into how late stage capitalism has shaped/stunted our ability to conceive of radical social change, and some of what he wrote about obsession with subjectivity being an outgrowth of capitalism feels extremely relevant to social media in 2021.