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The Romance of American Psychology: Political Culture in the Age of Experts. By Ellen Herman. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. xiv, 406 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-52008598-1.)
Ellen Herman's The Romance of American Psychology is an important contribution to the history of a crucial cultural phenomenon of the last fifty years, the psychologizing of American consciousness. Herman focuses on the rise of "psychological experts" to positions of political and cultural power. She narrows her view to three important areas: professional psychologists wartime efforts and their roles in Cold War policy making; the importance of psychologically inclined social scientists to the conceptualization of such key social issues as race and violence; and the impact of psychotherapy on the politicization of personal life.
Herman begins by chronicling psychology's entry into the defense...