Integrating Social Science Concepts and Findings into Psychodynamic Inquiry

Abstract

The reader will note that I have been urging that psychodynamically informed studies of world events that seek to take unconscious processes into account, need to use the methodology of the social sciences. For example, presenting a protocol of what to look for, as described in Chapter 3, makes the research procedure more understandable to the researcher and to the reader. A Popperian criterion for predicted consequences of assertions, described in Chapter 4, makes validation or invalidation possible. We will see in Chapter 8 that survey and content analysis methods, and thick description, can help in choosing and interpreting data. Chapter 9 will explore a collegial interactive procedure that would permit the creation of deeper meaning through a symbolic interactive process.