Summary
This chapter focuses on different moments in twentieth century history of human-machine pairings in popular culture and psychology. Characterizing these moments as shifts from early twentieth century “bodies as machines-in-motion” to bodies-as-codes and to codes-as-identity, human-machine couplings serve to elucidate how these transformations brought about changes in gender meanings even as they continued to secure a social and psychological order of heterosexuality. These couplings were likewise charged psychologically with marking off normative from pathological configurations and relations, including machines as madness-in-motion and hysterical breakdowns in social and psychological identity. Using these case studies, the chapter argues to place technology at the centre of feminist and critical psychology and to make this work historical.
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Bayer, B.M. (2001). Plugged In: Psychology, Technology and Popular Culture. In: Morss, J.R., Stephenson, N., van Rappard, H. (eds) Theoretical Issues in Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6817-6_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6817-6_3
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