The Failures of Behavioural Psychology

I have written a bit about behaviourism and its influence. More than once I have made reference to Arthur Koestler’s critique of behaviourism from his 1960’s book, The Ghost in the Machine. He begins it by arguing that behaviourism ‘has permeated our attitudes to philosophy, social science , education, psychiatry.’ The more I have thought about it since I first read that immensely useful book, the more I have thought he is right.

The Cambridge Analytica Scandal, part 2: biopower

In Part 1 of this two-part series, I looked at the Cambridge Analytica ‘scandal’, seeing how a corporation with knowledge of a population’s ‘hobby-horses’, could steer, with targeted social media posts, enough people to get the vote they wanted. I argued that the ‘scandal’ was not, as was presented by some, about Facebook stealing our data. I suggested it is about what Michel Foucault called ‘biopower’. In part 2, I explain what that means and then go on about the smoking ban a bit.

Some Books I read in 2016

As 2016 draws to a close, I thought I’d mention some of the books I read this year. I tend to have three things on the go at once: prose, poetry and non-fiction – so the selections come from each of those sections, although two of the writers transcend those boundaries.

Prose:

Lux the Poet  – Martin Miller, 1998. (Thanks Jan.)