SYNOPSIS
This paper explores how we might situate our understanding of early psychological development within the economic and political culture in which we live. How has an increasingly harsh and polarized political economy affected our emotional and relational ‘structures of feeling’? Drawing on attachment theory, the paper argues that both extremes of poverty and wealth tend to lead to insensitive and authoritarian parenting practices which promote an avoidant style of emotional regulation. The more dominant this becomes, the more it supports policies based on individualism and self-sufficiency, and leads to instrumental values within our social institutions.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sue Gerhardt
Sue Gerhardt is a practising psychotherapist living and working in Oxford. In 1997, she co-founded the Oxford Parent Infant Project (OXPIP), a charity that offers psychotherapy to parents and babies; the PIP model is now spreading to other areas of the country, such as Liverpool. In 2004, Sue published her best-selling book Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain (see the book reviews section—eds), and she is also the author of The Selfish Society (2010), described by one reviewer as ‘a valuable contribution to fixing “Broken Britain”’.