Social Science Methods for Psychodynamic Inquiry: The Unconscious on the World Scene by William R. Meyers (review)

This book is conceived as a guidebook and toolbox, a "how-to" manual for inquiries into the psychodynamics of world politics. Offering small and easily accessible subchapters, Meyers outlines different methodological approaches to integrating social scientific and psychoanalytic viewpoints with the aim of shedding light on non-rational and bizarre aspects of world politics.

With clinical and counseling psychologists and social and political scientists as the intended audience (pp. 1–2), Meyers is aware of the challenges inherent in the task of sensitizing readers to the workings of the unconscious in the socio-cultural field. Large parts of his audience will have grown up on a cognitive, positivistic academic diet that has fostered a skeptical attitude towards psychoanalysis and its place in scientific research. When Meyers writes that "[m]any people greet the idea of unconscious mental processes with intense skepticism and even with outright rejection" (p. 62), he seems to have at least one eye on his own audience. Thus, one of his main concerns throughout is to demonstrate the usefulness of psychodynamic research for the study of world politics. In this respect, concerns for meeting the standards of established social science take center stage, and testability and replication become important criteria for evaluating the success of integrating psychodynamic and social research. The ultimate goal is to give "the reader an understanding of the generality of the phenomena found" (p. 88).

Indeed, Meyers's requirements of testability and generality extend to the unconscious itself. After presenting various theories of unconscious mental life (Sigmund Freud's, Anna Freud's, ego-psychological, Lacanian, Žižekian), the author summarizes: "Each of these conceptions of the unconscious, when confronted with a seemingly irrational political/social event, may yield a different interpretation of that event. But what is key is that each of these interpretations is very likely to be testable" (p. 15). Indeed, Meyers handles the testing of the accuracy of psychodynamic findings with great caution. The tests remain focused on specific historical cases, and while generality remains his goal, Meyers is careful not to abstract findings from one case and transfer them broadly to other historical scenarios.

There is much to admire in this book and ample evidence of Meyers's sophistication and long-standing experience as a versatile scientist. One of his key phrases, "We don't know until we look" (p. 7), refers implicitly to the application of evenly hovering attention and empathic understanding, the crucial psychoanalytic technique that Meyers defines as central to interpreting empirical material (p. 30). His acknowledgment of Frankfurt School philosophy testifies to the social engagement at the root of Meyers's scientific endeavors: "Social scientists…know something has gone wrong (e.g. racism, sexism, absurdly skewed distribution of income and wealth, and threats from climate change), and in that sense they are at one with the 'critical theorists,' although this fact is not openly acknowledged" (p. 20). Furthermore, Meyers demonstrates the willingness and ability to work with concepts such as mentalization, perspectival thought, and theory of mind across various disciplinary divides (pp. 25ff). Even his attempts to measure and test the accuracy of empathic understanding, about which I have certain reservations, are intriguing in their willingness to approach psychodynamic issues from a scientific perspective, especially as science usually keeps a safe distance from such matters (pp. 31ff). Ultimately, the variety of mixed-method designs that Meyers suggests for coordinating qualitative and quantitative methods in psychodynamic research is impressively creative and inspiring.

In the early introductory part of his book, Meyers showcases his broad methodological scope and sophistication. For example, his examination of the incidence of lethal neglect of infants in orphanages in Ireland demonstrates in a compressed way the multiperspectival approach that he considers essential to understanding such cases. Writing that "there may be evidence for the characterization of the infants as 'children of Satan'" (p. 6), he explains that such terminology should trigger inquiry: [End Page 249...