cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4028381

The only thing I can think of is Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord and Marshall McLuhan's work on media.

Oh, and this work by Christian Fuchs.

Problem being:

I think Fuchs is a Marxist-Humanist and I'm not sure what to think of Marxist humanism.

But I could be wrong.

Maybe I should ignore that aspect of their work.

Thoughts?

Got any book recommendations at all?

I'm looking for:

Media studies

Cultural theory

Communications

Internet

Social media

Management and organization

Community-building

Trends

Technology

etc.

^ These are the topics I'm looking into.

And, hopefully, from a Marxist-Leninist or Marxist standpoint (or at least leftist).

Got anything? Maybe advice?

  • ReadFanon [any, any]
    ·
    9 months ago

    I mean, as discipline psychoanalysis is essentially dead in the water and has been since before Anna Freud even died her well-deserved death, may she rot in piss.

    Whereas psychology as a discipline has greatly expanded and is extremely dynamic and it has analytical and descriptive power that outclasses psychoanalysis in all respects.

    I don't think that anyone but the most avid psychoanalist would argue that psychology is on par with or somehow inferior to psychoanalysis. My point was more about how in terms of outcomes for patients, you'd assume that psychology would have completely surpassed psychoanalysis given that it isn't based on crackpot nonsense but rather it draws on, what, like a solid century of genuinely scientific endeavour and application. But that's not the case - for all the advancements that psychology has made, and they are massive, in some ways it still seems to be stuck achieving outcomes on a rough par with the Austrian School of Sex Wizards and Oneiromancy.

    Basically: Wrong ideas -> Wrong conclusions -> Respectable outcomes

    vs

    Good ideas -> Good conclusions -> Respectable outcomes

    Which is just to say that something can be extremely flawed and yet still be useful. I wouldn't encourage anyone to approach Freud without very healthy skepticism but that also applies for plenty of other things too and even if its foundations are false, its analysis is false, and its conclusions are false doesn't mean that it is devoid of anything useful. All it means is that you're going to have to separate out the wheat from the chaff and the ratio of wheat:chaff is going to be much less than desirable.

    • Makan@lemmygrad.ml
      hexagon
      ·
      9 months ago

      Right. Yes, there are a lot of problems in psychology and even psychologists threat about it. Plus, lots of chuds and conservatives in the discipline. And the "achievements" of psychology don't compare well to, say, biology (as we previously brought up) or even sociology, I feel.


      Which is just to say that something can be extremely flawed and yet still be useful.


      Agreed! Frankly, I've... had a feeling that was the case for a long time, but also (again, for a long time), I was reluctant to take that line of thinking to its logical conclusion because I didn't want to be led astray.

      All to the good that I'm coming to terms with this logical reasoning.