Against Wittgenstein
- 1 August 1996
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Theory & Psychology
- Vol. 6 (3) , 363-384
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354396063001
Abstract
Wittgenstein's writing offers to psychologists a series of critical perspectives on concepts regularly employed by the discipline, and it assists in the deconstruction of facile appeals to notions of `cognition', `drive' or `self' in which traditional psychology trades. However, academic and popular representations of the Wittgensteinian focus on language, and on the discursive setting for all varieties of mental and cultural phenomena, also threaten to obscure the material structuring of contemporary institutional power, power that both inhibits and incites speech. Selected aphorisms from Wittgenstein that have been used to warrant radical linguistic reflections on psychology are examined, and it is argued that these theoretical points need to be contextualized and reworked to accommodate a historical materialist account.Keywords
This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit:
- Psychology, Society and SubjectivityPublished by Taylor & Francis ,2013
- Therapeutic Ways with WordsPublished by Oxford University Press (OUP) ,1994
- On the Textuality of BeingTheory & Psychology, 1994
- Constructing the SubjectPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1990
- Wittgenstein' s Rejection of Scientific PsychologyJournal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 1985
- Wittgenstein and a Causal View of Intentional ActionPhilosophical Investigations, 1984
- The Modularity of MindPublished by MIT Press ,1983
- Wittgenstein and Scientific KnowledgePublished by Springer Nature ,1977