Is there anything beyond the ideological critique of individualism?

Stam

pp. 143-151

in: Stam, Leendert Mos, Warren Thorngate, Bernie Kaplan (eds), Recent trends in theoretical psychology, Berlin, Springer, 1993

Abstract

The critique of psychology which claims that the discipline supports the ideology of individualism has floundered on two contestable notions, that of ideology and that of individualism. Sorting out various versions of the critique is useful but does not, in the end, point far beyond itself in resolving the alleged problem. Refusing to be an individualist might even be considered ludicrous in those cultures where psychology as an academic discipline and professional practice is taken seriously, if only because its existence is premised on some version of the thesis that the individual is the basic unit of analysis. The problem then is not to overcome individualism (whatever that might mean) but to see its productions in the ordinary world of psychological events. I draw an analogy with racism by examining selected portions of the American history of slavery and argue that, like racism, individualism had to be invented to gloss certain profound contradictions in modern life.