Fox is an Emeritus Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Psychology at the University of Illinois, Springfield. He has had considerable involvement in left politics and identifies with anarchism.
He attempts to address the core issue of "personal and political" that have posed problems for generations of activists. In other words, how to be true to one's political principles and act on those principles in one's personal and political relationships. We have all been indoctrinated in the beliefs and practices of capitalism with its extreme emphasis on individualism. Hence we haven't learned the tools of behaving in a more cooperative and socially affirming way. He looks at the field of psychology to see what it has to offer regarding this issue.
...despite the significance of psychological assumptions about reciprocal links between the personal and the political, it remains unclear to what extent any of psychology’s various guises – academic discipline, therapeutic profession, psychoanalytical understanding, or force of popular culture – can help advance liberation and community.Part 1 (9:03m)
Part 2 (4:18m)
The paper on which this presentation is based can be found here.
My own view is that a new subculture must be created to provide the soil to nurture egalitarian and social values. But, of course, that begs the question: how do we do that?
