Friday 13 February 2015

Visiting speaker: Ronald Roberts, Kingston University

Date and time: Thursday, Feb 26, 4:00pm, room C217.

Title: “The new politics of experience"

Abstract:
A lot of what is done in the name of psychotherapy and psychology is driven by motives which are base, shallow and commercial.  Theorising of the human condition too often follows the ideological fashions of the day, which can be described as biological/corporate fundamentalism. This toxic mixture not only mystifies the general public but also makes epistemological slaves of professional psychologists.  The talk will consider the influence of neoliberal capitalism on the divide between academic psychology and the psychotherapeutic art of healing.  One of the consequences of the capitalist domination of experience is that the very voice we employ to articulate our understanding of the human condition, whether in the midst of the therapeutic encounter, reflecting on the therapeutic encounter or theorising it, has become infected with psychology’s hunger for status, power and control, all masked by an ill-judged pretence of neutrality and objectivity.  This has made the relationship between the practical and academic sides of psychology deeply problematic as well as dishonest.

Bio:
Ron Roberts, Ph.D, C.Psychol, AFBPsS is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Kingston University. He has held previous posts at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of Westminster, King’s College Medical School, University College London, St Bartholomew’s Medical School, Queen Mary College and the Tavistock Institute. He is the author of over 50 refereed publications and six books.

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