Overview
- Highlights the various ways scientism can reflect and support socially oppressive structures and attitudes
- Reviews historical attempts within American mainstream psychology to promote positivity and productivity through the supposedly unarguable sciences of research
- Orients the concept of Pollyannaism within the larger context of scientism, positive psychology, and the systematic oppression of minority groups
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Table of contents (9 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book argues that the story of the orphan girl Pollyanna (namely, her strategy of playing the “glad games” to manage loss, abuse, and social prejudice) serves as a framework for critiquing historical forms of Western scientific Pollyannaism. The author examines Pollyannaism as it relates to the sciences, demonstrating how the approach has been used throughout modern Western history to enforce happiness and to criticize negative human emotional states. These efforts, carried out by scientists and popularized as scientific, focus on negating the role of the environment and on promoting varied forms of emotional control. Ultimately, the book emphasizes strategies used to compel individuals into becoming Pollyannas about science itself.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Oksana Yakushko, PhD, is Department Chair and faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, CA, USA.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Scientific Pollyannaism
Book Subtitle: From Inquisition to Positive Psychology
Authors: Oksana Yakushko
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15982-5
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and Psychology, Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-15981-8Published: 04 July 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-15984-9Published: 14 August 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-15982-5Published: 24 June 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 241
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Critical Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Positive Psychology, History of Psychology, Industrial and Organizational Psychology