Abstract
The two schools of thought known, respectively, as social-materialist psychology and depressive realism – (hereafter abbreviated to SMP and DR) – count themselves as ‘realist’ and science based. They reject the received Western notion of the person as the rational creator-entrepreneur of their own life, and they take a dim view of the current market-driven social and political order as the harbinger of yet more instability to come – economic, political and environmental. However, there are important differences between the two standpoints. For DR, all notions of human perfectibility are futile, whereas social-materialist psychology holds that improvement is conceivable. Our shared bodily experience of a social world structured by power offers some (albeit fragile) potential for achieving agreement about the shape of a common and more humane future, and about how to get there.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
The Midlands Psychology Group (http://www.midpsy.org) is a voluntary association of clinical, counselling and academic psychologists who have dedicated themselves to questioning the assumptions and politics of mainstream psychology – especially in its therapeutic and applied aspects. The membership of the group is: John Cromby, Bob Diamond, Paul Kelly, Paul Moloney, Penny Priest and Jan Soffe-Caswell.