Doctoral Program in Organizational Psychology
Psychology from a Critical Perspective Focus

This distinctive version of the PSP doctoral program focuses on the critical exploration of institutional life in the 21 st Century and employs a very old mode of graduate instruction—the tutorial—in a manner that enables learners from throughout the world to participate and interact on a continuing basis with one another and with a distinguished senior mentor, Richard Lichtman.

This distinctive version of the PSP doctoral program in organizational psychology is called The Doctoral Tutorial Program in Critical Theory. This graduate program represents the spirit of an exceptional group of intellectual who gathered first in Frankfurt Germany during the late 1920s and 1030s and then, to escape the clear threat of Nazi barbarism, moved to the United States where they took up residence in different parts of the country.

Primary Commitments

In respecting the roots of Critical Theory this PSP doctoral tutorial program is founded on three primary commitments:

First Commitment : The lifelong education of mature, interested, critical and accomplished adults. PSP will consider the students who enroll in the critical theory program to be permanent members of the school and continuing participants in the work of the program. We plan each year to engage those students who have graduated from the program in ongoing projects of continuing interest, whether in the form of lectures, films, seminars, or meeting the new students who will be entering the program. Students will be directed to long term goals through their participation in "adult learning" classes to be described later in the curriculum.

Second Commitment:

The promulgation of a richly textured interdisciplinary curriculum undertaken from a critical perspective. The traditional division of learning into distinct courses serves bureaucratic and administrative functions of the college or university which the student attends and facilitates, and augments the industrial division of labor which the traditional educational system is designed to serve, but it wholly disfigures the organic nature of knowledge and the process of learning. We follow the Hegelian maxim that the truth is the whole and understand that nothing is finally intelligible in separation from everything else.

Third Commitment: The integration of theory, scholarship, research, community service and practice. This additional level of development is required if knowledge is not to solidify at the level of sheer information. For knowledge serves two purposes: the understanding of the human condition and the transformation of the world of men and women in which that understanding takes place. Later courses in "intervention" will focus the nature of this commitment.

It is in the gathering of mature, accomplished learners—sometimes in a tutorial format and at other times in a more traditional classroom format—that exceptional learning can take place with regard to the fundamental nature, dynamics and purpose of critical analyses in the 21 st Century.

Programmatic Themes

Martin Seligman begins the summary of his introduction to the special, first issue of the American Psychologist for the 21st Century, with the following remarks concerning positive psychology:

"A science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions promises to improve quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless. The exclusive focus on pathology that has dominated so much of our discipline results in a model of the human being lacking the positive features that make life worth living. Hope, wisdom, creativity, future mindedness, spirituality, responsibility and perseverance are ignored or explained as transformations of more authentic negative impulses The authors outline a framework for a science of positive psychology, point to gaps in our knowledge, and predict that the next century will see a science and profession that will come to understand and build the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish."

It is difficult to understand which psychology Seligman is accusing of maintaining an "exclusive focus on pathology." Is it the ebullient accommodation of behaviorism, the abstract approach of the "cognitive sciences," the reductive analysis of the fetishism of testing? We might better recall the words of Warner Fite, uttered long ago but still relevant: "What is to be expected from a science of humanity which ignores all that is most distinctive of man?" In fact, the only "negative" psychological system that attempted entry into the American pantheon of "scientific psychology," psychoanalysis, was quickly dispatched.

Seligman's remarks are barely intelligible. What would it mean to "prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless?" If the barren meaninglessness is that of our own time and place, marked by alienation, exploitation and mystification, they are their own pathologies. But for Seligman:

"...positive psychology at the individual level is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom. At the group level, it is about the civic virtue and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance and work ethic."

There is considerably more to be learned from the critical dialectic of the Frankfurt School and its emphasis on negativity. So Marcuse has written:

"The negation which dialectic applies to ['facts'] is not only a critique of conformist logic, which denies the reality of contradictions; it is also a critique of the given state of affairs on its own grounds--of the established system of life, which denies its own promises and potentialities."

What critical theory brings to such polyanish citations as Seligman provides us is "immanent criticism," the revelation of the contradictions that underlie the system of capitalism that accounts for the invidious features of our society that Seligman ignores. Consider the fundamental values of the liberal order: freedom, autonomy, equality, fraternity and altruism. And then consider their actual embodiments: tyranny, alienation, dependence, oppression and competitiveness. The agency of this transformation is not difficult to discover; it is the malignancy of power in all its manifestations, precisely what bourgeois psychology has struggled to deny.

How is it possible that "the first new nation," pledged in its founding to uphold democratic liberty for itself and all the nations of the world should, in the several hundred years of its existence, become the scourge of the world's peoples? How has the United States, once the envy of enlightened people everywhere, come to expand through the 20th century inflicting death and disaster on the people of The Philippines, Mexico, Vietnam, Cambodia, Panama, Chile, Afghanistan" El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Congo, Indonesia, Haiti and numerous other nations, all the while developing a domestic system that enhances the power of the privileged few and subordinates the remainder to social forces beyond their control? Could this disaster have occurred without the support of deeply held illusions on the part of the American populace, illusions so powerful as to induce self-destructive activity in the face of irrational domination?

It is becoming increasingly clear to a larger portion of American society that something is fundamentally corrupt in our way of life and that while this fact cannot be denied, it is more and more difficult to understand precisely how it has come to exist.

Every society tends to legitimate itself and justify its own form of existence. It carries out this process in two distinct but interrelated areas of social life; in the realm of social power, which distributes the rights, privileges and obligations of the various members of that society, and in the realm of thought in which it constructs a view of the world which functions to defend that very form of society. In other words, every society acts to produce simultaneously its own system of power and a concomitant view of the justification of that power; in so doing, it provides a legitimation of its authority that is isomorphic with the world of domination its wishes to preserve.

In this regard, there is nothing unusual about the United States. We too exist in a system of power and a simultaneous system of social ideology. What does set us apart, however, is that we are a society rooted in capitalist expansion founded on the most powerful arsenal of technology and military destructiveness the world has yet known. That extraordinary accumulation of "technology," or more accurately for our purposes, of "technique," provides simultaneously for the most enormous penetration of the world's resources and the most extraordinary manipulation of world consciousness, thereby providing a system of power that is simultaneously more invidious and closed to self-reflection than any we have known in world history.

It is, however, one thing to realize that something is profoundly wrong with our society, to grasp with appropriate fear the knowledge that we are approaching a catastrophic precipice, and quite another to know how to go about uncovering the long term tendencies and likely outcomes of this historical motion. To be able to uncover these structures requires a theoretical perspective from which to view the world and our place in it; its potentialities and disfigurements, its vanishing possibilities and still prevalent human resources. And yet traditional social theory, itself a manifestation of this dying world, is not only inadequate to this task; it is in fact one of the factors ingredient in the deep misconception of ourselves that we must penetrate and replace by a wholly new praxis.

We know of other occasions in which an irrational society gave rise to a radical advance in theoretical reflection. When Nazism came to power in Germany in the 1930s it produced the need for a theory that could understand and oppose this barbarism, root and branch. Such a theory was forthcoming in the work of the Frankfurt School and its brilliant body of theoretical critique came to be known aptly as "critical theory." For no theory had so fully dedicated itself to the concept of critique. The questions for those committed intellectuals who quickly grasped the depravity of the Nazi movement and understood its roots in the decaying structures of 20th Century capitalism were these: how does a system of such extraordinary destructiveness arise in a society glorified by so many as the epitome of European development; how does it enlist the support of so many of its own citizens in its self-destructive rise to power, and finally, why did orthodox Marxism fail so tragically to understand the actual political psychology of the proletariat.

When the members of the Frankfurt School fled Germany and located themselves in the United States in 1934 their focus shifted to the manner in which this country, devoid of the typical methods of Nazi terrorism, established forms of authoritarianism that supported hierarchical domination and the corruption of social life. If it was not torture and murder that led Americans into subordination to the interests of class power, what were the mechanisms that could produce such consequences and what was the particular form of acquiescence that capitalist democracies were subject to? How could citizens nominally free to criticize their government and engage in all manner of dissent, be led so consistently to social practices inimical to the well being of the peoples of the world, not to mention their own? These are the issues we must understand. But first, we must begin by understanding what we mean by "understanding."

To understand how this process of self-subordination arose we must critique the formation of that mode of social theory that is traditionally construed as the essence of explanation itself, the model of positivist knowing, for it is itself a part of the very society we wish to critique. For most theoretical practitioners, traditional theory is a matter of relating a system of propositions, which is said to be derived from the most general and basic contentions about society and human nature, to a set of facts that are held to confirm or disconfirm the theoretical structure. This sounds credible enough until we realize: that theories are never wholly separate from the basic structures of the societies within which they are produced; that the facts are not external objects like stars and atoms, but rather, socially constructed entities whose meanings are articulated by the very societies we are attempting to comprehend; and that it is the social structure that also forms the mentality of those individuals who utilize the socially constructed theories to understand the socially constructed facts.

In short, the facts and the persons and theories who comprehend them are socially determined and isomorphic with each other. In its fetishistic idolatry of the "facts," positivist social theory not only misconstrues the suffering that lies redolent within the facts, it similarly turns its gaze away from its own privileged power and the subordination of those whose blood stained the stage of its impartial and objective "insight. "

The essence of positivist social science is the reduction of social explanation to the form of explanation utilized in the physical sciences. However, the "facts" to be explained in the physical sciences are without consciousness, intention, purpose, longing, desire and suffering. As they cannot labor they cannot be exploited. As they lack any moral sense or being they cannot be degraded. Of course, with the degradation of human life in our time the necessity is greater than ever to account for this disintegration through the means of a social perspective which has not lost its moral compass. For the "human sciences" to follow the physical sciences is to construct a system of fetishism in which the degradation of life in the last throws of capitalism cannot be seen as other than a "natural" process, that is, a systematic necessity devoid of any possibility of change.

If thought is embedded in society it is similarly embedded in the structure of power that prevails in that society. It is not only that the social structure determines who is provided the leisure to carry out intellectual and who physical labor, but the various forms of intellectual and physical labor are also affected. The intellectuals who are afforded the privilege of constructing theories are very likely to construct such theories as legitimate their place of privilege.

So it is not surprising that traditional theory cannot grasp the global totality that gives each fact its meaning, for the facts are significant not merely in relation to each other but in relation to the emergent or stultified values that establish their meaning and to the roles of those in the social system that are responsible for the construction of the theory in question. For thought must always consider its own role in the process of understanding; that is, the thinker must grasp the manner in which he or she has been socially formed and learn in the process of thinking about society to think about the nature of his or her own "location," in that society, its class position and its goal, its value assumptions and its place in a just or unjust society. Social theory must become dialectical, self-critical, and "negative" in the sense in which critical theory understood that term.

Intellectuals must reject the tendency to fall back on the sheer facts and must provide instead a critique of those facts and of the suffering that has been necessary to produce them; and simultaneously, emancipatory intellectuals must also provide some vision, however incomplete, of an alternative interpretation of the facts that can serve as the basis of new human world. As Horkheimer stated the matter: "The real social function of philosophy lies in its criticism of what is prevalent," and, of the transformation of that prevalent society. Or to put the matter with Adorno: "The need to lend a voice to suffering is the condition of all truth."

It is obvious that our society functions to weaken and, if possible, destroy critical thought. It's basic aim is to permeate every aspect of society with a sense of the impossibility of change. Rather, everything in the social world is reduced to the model of natural existence as it prevails in the physical science. Who would think it possible to change the laws of physics without incurring the ridicule and scorn of society? So the prevailing mentality of the age holds that everything must, at least in its basic structure, be required by laws of nature and through those required laws, seen to be the only, and therefore, the best of all possible worlds.

The fetishism of commodities which Marx so brilliantly explored has by the 21st Century expanded into every aspect of society, so that the notion or reification developed by Lukacs is required to deal with the pervasiveness of current dehumanization. The forms of this objectification are many: in the conviction that human nature is fixed prior to society; the view that bureaucracy in unavoidable in a complex industrial society; in the idolatry of technique as the new religion of modern men and women. That power is vested in the social world is not a novel fact of history; that our particular system of power is necessarily embodied is an instance of the false consciousness produced by the ideology we previously noted.

The need for social critique has never been more urgent. And so the need for a theoretical program through which students can come to understand the basic themes of critical theory and begin to disengage themselves from the dehumanized structure of our time. It is with this need in mind that The Professional School of Psychology undertakes to offer a Psy.D. Degree that will parallel from a critical theory perspective its more orthodox program in Organizational Psychology.

The structure of the program is radical and innovative as its substance. Rather than provide the traditional menu of courses: personality theory, social and cognitive bases of behavior, measurement and assessment, neurobiology, intervention in groups and organizations, and so forth, the senior tutor in this program will offer a carefully selected number of books and accompanying reading that cover all these subjects in a more organic manner.

The first year, for example, will serve as an introduction to the work of the Frankfurt School by aquatinting students with those writers who have been most germane to the development of critical theory: Hegel, Kant, Marx, Weber and Freud. We will not only read from the works of these thinkers and from secondary material where useful, but we will focus simultaneously on those writings of the school that deal specifically with the thinkers in question. For example, we will not simply read from Hegel, but focus at the same time on Marcuse's Reason and Revolution. And similarly in the case of Freud, we will cite the relevant material from Adorno and Horkheimer, and the particularly relevant debate between Marcuse and Fromm.

In the second and third years we will proceed to the works of the school, arranged to cover the largest possible exposition, in an historically relevant manner, and with the goal of organic integration uppermost in mind. Once again an example may prove useful: One of the standard complex of course in graduate social theory concerns measurement, assessment and statistics. These courses have the reputation, often well deserved, of being tedious, abstract and irrelevant.

However, we will not separate the methodology of social inquiry from the content material of the courses. So, an inquiry into the authoritarian personality needs to incorporate the perspective that Sartre provided in the opening pages of Anti-Semite and Jew and that the authors of The Authoritarian Personality would have agreed to:

" ... accustomed as we have been since the Revolution to look at every object in an analytic spirit, that is to say, as a composite whole elements can be separated, we look upon persona or characters as mosaics in which each stone coexists with the others without that coexistence affecting the nature of the whole. Thus anti-Semitic opinion appears to us to be a molecule that can enter into combination with other molecules of any origin whatsoever without undergoing any alteration. A man may be a good father and a good husband, a conscientious citizen, highly cultivated, philanthropic and in addition as anti- Semite. He may like fishing and the pleasure of love, may be tolerant in matters of religion, full of generous notions on the condition of the native in Central Africa, and in addition detest Jews. If he does not like them, we say, it is because his experience has shown him that they are bad, because statistic have taught him that they are dangerous, because certain historical factors have influenced his judgment. Thus this opinion seems to be the result of external causes, and those who wish to study it are prone to neglect the personality of the anti- Semite. I do not say that these two conceptions are necessarily contradictory. I do say that they are dangerous and false."

So the authors of the Authoritarian Persona1ity and Sartre agreed that there was some intrinsic connection between the view of the anti-Semite and other characteristics of his personality. But what was this connection and is there any possibility of measuring the extent of its covariance, the degree to which a change in one characteristic will be correlated with a change in another? And which characteristics show the strongest connection? As the subject has been summarized:

"The account moves from anti-Semitic attitudes to ethnocentric ideology to political and economic conservatism to implicit antidemocratic trends to needs and traits revealed in interviews, TAT stories, and answers to projective questions. It is all an account of covariation, how one kind of behavior is associated with another."

Put this way, the subject of "covariation" quickly looses its abstract, detached quality and becomes a valuable tool for understanding the degree of cohesion that structures personality. The same is true of other concepts employed in the study I such as the construction of questionnaire data and the development of "scaling."

In this organic, integrated fashion we will explore all the traditional coursework in Organizational Psychology: personality theory; social bases of behavior; cognitive bases of behavior; learning theory; decision theory; foundational studies of individuals, groups and organizations; measurement and assessment, and interventions into individuals, groups and organizations from a critical perspective.

The prospective student may wonder why we are at all interested in dealing with even the subject matter of traditional theory, concerned as we are to render a significant critique of its work. It is important to understand that one of the pillars of critical theory is the notion of negative dialectic, the power of thought to undermine and dissolve the supposedly fixed and self-evident character of the given state of social life "on its own grounds," as Marcuse put it. In other words, immanent critique reveals the irrationality and violence inherent in the apparently rational and conciliatory state of capitalist affairs, the exploitation within "freedom," the domination rooted in the liberal concept of equality. An essential step, therefore, in developing a critical social perspective requires a “negative” analysis of the root concepts of the capitalist cannon.

Two caveats are in order: first, we do not plan to limit ourselves exclusively to the material of the Frankfurt School as a great number of other works in the spirit of critical theory can readily be utilized to extend our understanding. And second, the emphasis in our study must be on those works that illuminate the most salient dangers of our time, of which the most prominent is undoubtedly the continuous deterioration of American democracy and the simultaneous threat posed to the nations of the world and the global ecological system. This last consideration leads us to a radical study of the mass media (or, as the Frankfurt School referred to it, “The Culture Industry”), to the amalgamation of global capitalism and the State which is one of the features of 20th century Fascism and to the prevailing structures of authoritarianism

Distinctive Program Features

The Professional School of Psychology believes that the Doctoral Tutorial Program in Critical Theory provides its students with a unique opportunity to contribute to disciplined projects of critical exploration regarding contemporary society and the exploration of a new social system whose outlines are presently only vaguely demarcated. The critical theory program offers four distinctive features that place this program at the cutting edge of graduate education and uniquely prepares students for the new directions that society and its major institutions will be required to create:

First Distinction: Firm Interdisciplinary Grounding

The Doctoral Tutorial Program in Critical Theory is a thoroughly interdisciplinary program. Not only will students become knowledgeable in social and critical analysis, sociology and cultural anthropology, postmodern theory, organizational development, post-modern developments and their appraisal, but they will also be expected to master the basic aspect and underlying philosophical assumptions of cognitive theory and the neurosciences. However, since the perspective of this program is both interdisciplinary and critical, our approach to the so called "hard sciences" such as brain physiology and neuropsychology will be placed in the context of larger philosophical, social and political concerns. For the overwhelming number of current works in these fields are reified accounts of physical, neurological and chemical processes that are divorced from the functioning human brain and nervous system and even more significantly, from the human beings whose functions they facilitate within particular social and political systems.

Three core courses in the program will focus on individual aspects of democratic participation in emerging institutions, three on group aspects of participation, and three on the structural aspects of participation. In each case, one of the three courses concerns theory, the second focuses on assessment and the third on intervention. Students also take course in adult learning, decision- theory and attitudinal development. Students deepen their consultation skills and understanding of organizational dynamics through internships and small group case conferences. Once again, what distinguishes the PSP doctoral tutorial program in critical theory from the traditional approach to these matters is the emphasis on critique of current institutions and current theoretical articulations of these institutions. We view individuals, groups and structures as dialectically related as we similarly view understanding, participation and transformation as stages of one single progressive development.

Second Distinction: Small Classes and Close Student/Faculty Relationships

By design, PSP classes are limited in size. The Critical Theory Program is particularly defined by its very small class size, which is essential in maintaining a tutorial format. Small class size facilitates an intimate collegial atmosphere between students and teachers, as well as providing students with direct, hands-on supervision and education by the instructor.

Third Distinction: Alternative Opportunities for Dissertation Work

Students enrolled in the Critical Theory Program are given the option of completing a "doctoral project" in lieu of an empirical dissertation. These projects are scholarly works that may include authoring a book, developing a treatment protocol or writing a grant proposal for a progressive, nonprofit agency. The purpose is to provide opportunities for doctoral students to take on a project that is both personally meaningful and contributes to the development of community institutions.

Fourth Distinction: Alternative Modes of Program Planning

Students enrolled in the Critical Theory Program are given the opportunity to participate in a highly innovative process of program planning and assessment that is specifically geared toward the adult learner. Called the Portfolio, this assessment process is completed by organizational students in lieu of a formal internship or comprehensive examinations.

Desired Educational Outcomes

While the Critical Theory Program offers perspectives and levels of analysis that are not found in the other doctoral programs in organizational psychology at the Professional School of Psychology, this program embraces the same twelve outcomes fundamental to all doctoral programs in organizational psychology offered at the Professional School of Psychology:

• An understanding of the full range of normal and abnormal developmental processes in human beings. Essential to this endeavor, and often neglected in traditional programs is an understanding of how the distinction between the "normal" and the "abnormal” is significantly influenced by social, political and economic factors.
• The capacity to influence community life through related capacities of democratic participation and provisional leadership roles and functions, including teacher, learner, scholar, researcher, interventionist, organizational facilitator and advocate.
• An understanding of both traditional and alternative research methods that illuminate the study of the human condition and the ability to comprehend and appreciate the literature emanating from a number of distinct disciplinary perspectives.
• An ability to work cooperatively with others from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, which requires an appreciation of the methods and contexts of these other disciplines and the possibilities of cooperative social activities.
• An understanding of the ethical issues involved in collective, democratic practices and of the principles of effective and moral structured action.
• An ability to relate knowledge about democratic participation to the social and cultural context of those individuals and organizations that are being served by this progressive form of participation.
• An attitude of ongoing and critical self-evaluation, including the ability to know when and where to acquire consultation from other progressive forces sharing the same goals.
• A broad familiarity with the disciplinary foundations of human knowledge: biological, social, cognitive and affective, and the capacity to appreciate, integrate and apply knowledge about cooperative activity in a variety of social and cultural settings.
• An understanding of the critical/reflective methodological processes which are based on and derived from personal experience, social and historical perspective and an understanding of the relationship between scholarship, research and practice.
• Acquisition and honing dialogical skills, including skills of experiential and phenomenological inquiry.
• An understanding of an array of intervention models and the strengths and limitations of each, as well as an integration of other models and empirical information into a personal comprehension that provides a basis for informed practices regarding the development and engagement of democratic participation in contemporary society.
• Flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity and commitment to ongoing organizational development and learning.

Senior Tutor: Richard Lichtman, Ph.D. in Philosophy and M.A. in Psychology

Dr. Lichtman is a well-known teacher and author who has trained and studied intensely in philosophy, psychology, psychotherapy and social theory. His perspective develops the interrelations among a wide variety of disciplines and is founded on the conviction that the truth lies in the totality, not in isolated parts of the whole. He has taught in the philosophy department at the University of California at Berkeley, been a fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, the humanities department at San Francisco State University, the sociology department at the University of California at Santa Cruz, as well as many other institutions in the United States and Europe, and for the last thirty years has taught social psychology, theory and methodology at the Wright Institute in Berkeley California.

His writings indicate the range of his interests: The Production of Desire is an analysis and evaluation of the numerous attempts that have been made to integrate the works of Marx and Frued; Essays in Critical Social Theory is an application of critical theory to a wide range of subjects in economic, political and social theory; Dying in America is a critical analysis of contemporary theories of death and dying and a memoir of his father and his death. Dr. Lichtman has also contributed to a large number of scholarly journals. He is currently working in a volume that will provide a basic critique of the notions of normalcy and pathology that underlie contemporary psychology and therapy.

PSP Courses [With Critical Theory Foci]

Prolegomena to Course Descriptions

The listing of course may seem to resemble the traditional mode of course presentation, but there are several significant differences between the standard form or presentation and the model adopted in the critical theory program:

First, each theoretical approach is considered from the point of view of critical theory. We therefore make predominant use of the theories that have been developed by the members of the Frankfurt School and those they have influenced. If we take up the theory of behaviorism, for example, we simultaneously examine it from the perspective of critical theory. However, even before we take up particular theories we consider the history of psychology as a whole from the perspective of the sociology of knowledge. Too often psychological theories are presented as though they are independent of the social and historical circumstances in which they developed. Students in the critical theory program will be introduced to the intellectual practice of examining social and psychological theories in their historical and social context, and will be expected to understand how the method, content, evidence and formal paradigms of each theory are related to their social circumstances.

Second, while the overwhelming majority of American programs in graduate school psychology and organizational theory are almost exclusively Anglo-Saxon in perspective, we intend our critical theory program to derive from “foreign” sources whenever it proves useful. Of course, since we are dealing with a theoretical perspective that developed first in Germany, this may seem obvious, but we intend more than the tautology of studying critical theory in its European format. For beyond the work of thinkers like Adorno, Horkheimer, Fromm and Marcuse, there have developed later generations of critical thinkers who do not simply replicate the structure of the original Frankfurt school, but inspired by its spirit, move on in their own direction.

Third, our program is organized less around specific course subjects and much more around the assignment of great books of critical reflection, or of significant parts of such works, when this is more feasible. Our view is that such concepts as personality, organization, social system, cognition, attitude and the nature of social inquiry cannot be isolated from each other, our focus will be on the need to synthesize such themes as much as possible in single works that provide integration, rather than in isolated papers of diverse authors that lack any unity. We believe that notions like emotion, motivation, practice and even intelligence make up something of a complex that cannot be separated into separate parts as the analytic tradition has always insisted.

As a consequence of these reflections we may note that although courses are presented in the traditional manner, the meaning of this procedure is quite different in the Critical Theory Program. For the titles of the course indicate, at most, an emphasis on a particular aspect of configuration, and not a distinct unit of learning.

PSY 749 Personality Theory (4 units)

Examination of major theoretical approaches to understanding personality development, structure, and functioning. Considering different models, this course focuses on how personality theories are built, the elements of such theories, and the relationship between personality theory and intervention. Limitations of each theoretical conceptualization and the impact of these limits on application and research are explored. Students are encouraged to recognize their own assumptions about personality and to organize those assumptions into an evolving conceptualization.

Critical Theory Focus: In traditional psychology the notion of personality seems a clear enough concept with distinct boundaries and a fixed content. But this notion is quite problematic. One of the issues that is overlooked, for example, is the relationship between personality and society and the particular nature of the society that is being considered; a moment's reflection is enough to raise a serious question as to whether the two can be distinguished, as they sometimes are, or joined in the superficial manner that prevails when they are considered two different factors that impact upon each other. In particular, the tendency of society to actualize or thwart the development of the individual is a matter of fundamental significance that cannot be overlooked, although this pertinent consideration does not prevent a general neglect of the subject. Nor can the notion of "false consciousness" be eliminated from the notion of personality, although traditional textbooks and standard tracts seem to ignore this absolutely vital idea with impunity.

PSY 770 Behavioral Neurobiology (4 units)

An introduction to behavioral neurosciences with an exploration of the physiology underlying human behavior. Particular attention given to functional neuroanatomy, neuroendocrine functions, psychosomatic disorders and psychoneuroimmunology. Consideration is also given to the design of psychological interventions and educational/training programs based upon recent research and theory regarding the neurophysiology (mind/body interactions) underlying human behavior.

Critical Theory Focus: In keeping with traditional approaches our introduction to the neurosciences involves an exploration of the physiology affecting human activity. However, the subject cannot be left in this form: it is equally necessary to situate the function of human physiology in the larger human practice of self-determining and self-actualizing praxis. There is a considerable amount of evidence to indicate that human interrelations in infancy and childhood influence the nature of the brain and nervous system and since social structure affect language and intelligence, we need to explore the relationship between social structure and cognition and the nature of brain functioning.

In other words, the commonplace philosophical assumption that the body is identical to the mind, or underlies and determines the nature of mind, must be held open to philosophical scrutiny, lest such subjects as human freedom and responsibility are reduced to peculiar functions of the brain, thereby ignoring the manner in which the brain itself is altered though human relations. The brain is not only a physical but simultaneously social organ and it must be understood in this larger human context.

PSY 772 Social Bases of Behavior (4 units)

A focus on the social influences of individual and group behavior with an emphasis on perception, cognition, identity, attitudes, conformity, aggression, and interpersonal relationships. Exploration of the relationship between individuals and their social contexts, both cross-culturally and historically. In-depth discussions of these issues relevant to clinical, group, and organizational interventions.

Critical Theory Focus : This class concerns itself with the influence of social structure and action on perception, cognition, self-identity, attitude, aggression, conformity and interpersonal relations. This relationship is, of course, dialectical and the aspects of individual mentality that are produced in a given society make possible and necessary the continuing reproduction of society through individual participation. In short, the individual and the society are two aspects of the same situation seen from one perspective or the other; either we view individuals in their aggregate as a social system or we consider the social system in terms of the individual members that constitute it.

PSY 774 Cognitive Bases of Behavior (4 units)

A comprehensive exploration of numerous psychological theories related to the development of and organization of thought and memory. Ways in which cognitive processes influence the individual’s perceptions of reality, emotional experiences, motivation, and behavior. A consideration of various contemporary research studies concerning the development of intervention strategies useful for clinical, group, or organizational change.

Critical Theory Focus: This course is a comprehensive exploration of numerous psychological theories related to the development and organization of thought, language and memory. The major distinction between this course and standard, traditional account of the same subject material is that we consider not only the cognitive bases of behavior but, simultaneously, the ideological bases of behavior. The term “ideology” is used throughout in the Marxist sense of false consciousness. Since our perspective emphasizes such concepts as estrangement, exploitation and dominance it is clear that individuals must "learn" to participate in the social forms of mystification. A number of research studies which emphasize this feature of social life will be considered as will the effect of ideology on memory, narrative, emotion and perception.

PSY 784-786 The Nature and Functioning of Psychological Inquiry (15 units)

This year long sequence of courses highlights the fundamental issues and variety of approaches to psychological inquiry. Attention is given to the history and systems of psychological inquiry, to the wide-range of quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry being engaged by practicing psychologists today, and to the strategies of psychological inquiry that might be engaged by students as they prepare their dissertation proposals. The focus of these three courses is no applied research and on the interplay between theory, research and practice, so that students enrolled in these courses might become successful “reflective practitioners” who consistently reflect on their own practices, while contributing to the accumulating wisdom of their field.

Critical Theory Focus: This is a full-length sequence of course that examines the fundamental issues and varieties of approaches to psychological theory. We hold that there is no such thing as "method" in the realm of social inquiry; instead, there are a number of distinct methods that are embodied in distinct and often antagonistic social and psychological perspectives. For example, positivism, phenomenology, linguistic analysis and, of course, critical theory provides alternative interpretations of the subject matter, methodology and significance of issues in social and psychological discourse.

We concern ourselves with a wide range of quantitative and qualitative strategies that are being employed in social and psychological theory today. We expect that this work will assist students in preparing for their dissertation proposals. Our focus is on the interplay between theory, research and practice, understood in relation to the overarching importance of emancipation as the ultimate goal of theory. We hope to educate students into the domain of reflective practice where theory and practice mutually define and enforce each other. Our ultimate task is, in Marx’s well-known phrase, not merely to interpret the world, but to change it.

PSY 784 The Nature and Functioning of Psychological Inquiry I: History and Systems (5 units)

This first quarter of the Psychological Inquiry sequence focuses on the fundamental issues being addressed by men and women who have been concerned with the human condition. Enduring schools of psychological theory and accompanying schools of psychological inquiry will be identified, along with the philosophical orientations and historical context that produced and sustained each school. Several seminal psychological theorists will be featured and their approach to psychological inquiry will be carefully examined, using primary texts as a guide and source of classroom dialogue. Students will be expected to prepare a refined essay that focused on one psychological theme or one psychological theory. This paper constitutes one half of the research requirement for advancement to doctoral candidacy.

Critical Theory Focus: The first quarter of the three-quarter sequence focuses on the history of systematic attempts to deal with the human condition, considering in particular the various enduring attempts that have been made to grasp human existence, especially as they have developed into schools of thought. The course makes extensive use of primary texts and dialogues among prominent thinkers. Students will be expected to prepare a critical essay that focuses on one of the psychological themes or theories.

PSY 785 The Nature and Functioning of Psychological Inquiry II: Methods (5 units)

This second quarter of the Psychological Inquiry sequence provides students with several options with regard to the methods of psychological inquiry. Students select two psychological inquiry modules from a set of at least four. The student’s choices are based on his or her research and career interests, as well as his or her background in modes of psychological inquiry. Modules will vary from year to year depending on student interests (identified during PSY 784), but will typically include some of the following: statistics, computer modeling, qualitative methodology, quantitative methodology and research design, and program evaluation.  

Critical Theory Focus: In this inquiry into psychological methods students will have several available options. Students select two psychological inquiry modules from a set of at least four. The choices are based on the student's research and career interests. Modules will therefore vary depending on student interest but will typically include some of the following: statistics, computer modeling and the impact of computers on society, forms of qualitative and quantitative methodology and program evaluation. It is to be remembered that these topics are to be considered from a critical perspective.

PSY 786 The Nature and Functioning of Psychological Inquiry III: Strategies (5 units)

This final quarter of the Psychological Inquiry sequence focuses on integration and application. Students select a specific topic for extensive inquiry (usually related to their anticipated dissertation project). They prepare a proposal regarding how they will address this topic, making use of the methodologies they have studied in PSY 785 and the perspectives they have gained regarding the history and systems of psychological inquiry in PSY 784. Students will be expected to prepare a refined document that demonstrates a command of the concepts and methodologies offered in the previous two courses in this sequence. This paper constitutes one half of the research requirement for advancement to doctoral candidacy.

Critical Theory Focus: The final quarter in the sequence focuses on integration and application. Students select a specific topic for extensive inquiry, one usually related to their dissertation project. Students prepare a preliminary proposal stating how they will address their eventual project. This paper constitutes the other half of the research requirement for advancement to doctoral candidacy.

PSY 810 Theoretical Foundations of Organizational Psychology: Individuals (4 units)

This course covers the theoretical basis of industrial-organizational psychology across a range of topics, particularly as it relates to individuals within an organizational context. Attention will be given to such issues as behavior, motivation, attitudes, cognitive skills, and personality. Discussion will include the application of theoretical issues to career development, adult learning, growth, and change.

Critical Theory Focus: This course will focus on the nature of individual growth and development as these dynamics relate to organization life. The organization, in turn, must be understood from the perspective of its function within capitalism, and in consideration of the nature of alienation that function constitutes. 

PSY 811 Theoretical Foundations of Organizational Psychology: Groups (4 units)

This course covers the dynamics that operate in the formation and maintenance of task-oriented groups. Attention is given to such issues as leadership, decision-making, problem solving, communication, morale, conflict management, and planning. Consideration is also given to theories emphasizing behavioral analysis as well as unconscious processes among group members.

Critical Theory Focus: Particular attention is given in this course to the formation of democratic oriented groups and the processes of decision making, problem, communication, morale and democratic planning. Consideration is also given to important elements of unconscious processes that impede and encourage the development of new group formations.

PSY 813 Theoretical Foundations of Organizational Psychology: Organizations (4 units)

An examination of the seminal works in organizational psychology covering such areas as human relations, group relations, and social-critical theory. Attention is also given to social, political, economic, and cultural influences on contemporary organizations.

Critical Theory Focus: An examination of seminal works in organizational development and organizational psychology focusing on the dialectic between the two; in short, a study of the nature of individual psychology and the formation of the self within given social structures. Attention is simultaneously directed to social, political, economic and cultural influences on contemporary organizations. In other words, our account throughout concerns itself with the obvious fact that the individual lives simultaneously within various structures: the larger society and smaller organizations and groups, and that these affect each other. Another way of presenting this fact is to note that “individuality,” (to be distinguished from “individualism,” is itself a social category and has no existence separate from various social formations. 

PSY 815 Attitude Theory (4 units)

An examination of the relationship between attitudes and organizational change. Emphasis will be place on the impact of attitudes on diagnosis of organizational problems, and the relationship between behavioral intentions and individuals’ behavior at work. Specifically, this course will focus on attitude theory, formation, measurement, change, and how attitudes relate to behaviors.

Critical Theory Focus: The great defect of prevailing attitude theory is the separation so generally attempted of subjective states from social circumstances. Whether attitudes are viewed as rational calculations or attempts to overcome apparent dissonance, little is said about the larger structures of reason or its absence in its prevailing social structure. Ever since Thomas and Znaniecki introduced the term in a systematic fashion in their classic study of the Polish Peasant in America, it has been clear that the ultimate function of the term is to mediate between social control and continual change in such a manner that no real threat to ruling class dominance could arise. This class will study the social origins and consequences of this arrangement. 

PSY 817 Decision Theory (4 units)

In this course consideration is given to methods for encouraging effective individual, small group, and institutional decision-making within a context of institutional complexity, turbulence, and conflicting priorities. The focus will be on task, method, and relationship dimensions of decision making, as well as on organizational mapping and learning through the use of systemic, computer-based analytic tools. This course also examines the prescriptive and normative emphasis of decision theory, as potentially applied to the areas of employee selection, choice behavior, vigilance behavior, and human performance. An understanding of the inferential procedures used by individuals in making decisions will be explored through one or more of the following models: the Brunswickian lens, Bayesian inference, and cognitive information processing.  

Critical Theory Focus: This subject has a number of distinct meanings, but this course will focus on what is known as “rational choice theory” and its pathologies. One of the paradigms of the discipline is Tullock’s remark: “Voters and customers are essentially the same people. Mr. Smith buys and votes; he is the same man in the supermarket and in the voting booth.” What are the underlying assumptions regarding human psychology and rationality that ground this theory, and can they be separated from social considerations and from social ideology? What empirical methodology could be employed to confirm or disconfirm this perspective? And in the light of the work of Kenneth Arrow, is it possible to elaborate a system of democratic welfare? 

PSY 820-822 Measurement and Assessment [Individuals/Groups/Organizations]

While these are three independent courses, each with its own focus, they will be treated as a single block of courses in the Critical Theory Tutorial program with a single specific focus in all three courses.

Critical Theory Focus: Before focusing on the specific aspects of measurement and assessment, which will be provided in a three sequence course dealing with individuals, groups and organizations, it will be helpful to set out the basic perspective of the course as a whole and its sequence. Assessment must be comprehended as a general theoretical approach involving underlying assumptions and empirical and quantitative and qualitative measures rooted in those assumptions. Too often such material is abstracted from its social, political and methodological context and presented as a reified analysis of “testing,” per se. But our approach involves, once again, the integration of social interpretation and useful functional devices to clarify the outcome of empirical explorations of that social interpretation.

This understanding may seem familiar to the reader as it is the approach
utilized by critical theorists and their other colleagues in the monumental
Studies in Prejudice, which first appeared in 1950  and contained the five
volumes: Dynamics of Prejudice: A Psychological and Sociological  Study of Veterans; Anti-Semitism and Emotional Disorder: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation;  The Authoritarian Personality (the most famous of the five works and the most pertinent for our purposes); Prophets of Deceit and Rehearsal for Destruction.

It is impossible to say very much in a short introduction regarding this
elaborate and seminal work. One or two aspects may be noted:  First, the
theoretical work of understanding was put in a larger practical framework.
       Our aim is not merely to describe prejudice but to explain it in
       order to help in its eradication. That is the challenge we would
       meet. Eradication means reduction, scientifically planned on the
       basis of understanding scientifically arrived at. And education in a
       strict sense is by nature personal and psychological.  (Horkheimer
       and Folowerman in the introduction to the Studies.)
This formulation integrates explanation, science, planning and psychological analysis.  And in other works, such as Elements of Anti-Semitism, Horkheimer and Adorno located the position of the Jew in the history of Western civilization, maintaining in the discussion that anti-Semitism was not merely a personal, psychological category, but was rooted in larger social, political and economic conditions: “Bourgeois anti-Semitism has a specific economic basis - the veiling of domination in production.” But, whether the roots of anti-semitism as presented in The Authoritarian Personality were psychological or sociological was a matter of some considerable dispute. The overall view of the work concluded that the anti-Semite in America tended to be ethnocentric, maintaining that groups other than his own possessed various odious innate characteristics.

Politically, the anti-Semite tended to be conservative, a defender of free
enterprise, patriotic, a supporter of business and an enemy of labor.  He
was rigid and intolerant of ambivalence. The evidence collected by the
researchers at the University of California was organized in two ways: as a
system of opinions, attitudes and values in various areas of social life,
and as an expression of personality as understood to a large extent through
psychoanalytic categories and structured in terms of their quality, intensity and object.

The empirical device for articulating and relating these social and psychological aspects of anti-Semitism was a series of four paper and pencil scales: Anti-Semitism, Ethnocentrism, Political and Economic Conservatism and Implicit Antidemocratic Trends or Potentiality for Fascism. One of the main concerns of the work was the relation of co-variance that did or did not obtain; that is, how closely associated each of these characteristics was with the others. When this empirical material was set in the context of larger concerns it had the capacity to illuminate large areas of social and psychological life. Nevertheless, the question of how successful the study was is open to discussion and one of the matters that this course will examine. A study of the work will certainly prove more valuable than a great many standard views of assessment and measurement that merely reify their quantitative procedures.

PSY 820 Measurement and Assessment: Individuals (4 units)

An examination of the psychometric bases for measuring normal human behavior with attention given to the assessment, interpretation, and communication of individuals’ distinguishing characteristics appropriate to a variety of work-related purposes. Emphasis placed on interviews, tests, and appraisal techniques that deal with such areas as knowledge, skills, abilities, performance, interests, attitudes, and personality. Topics to be covered include identifying, developing, selecting, and using the appropriate means for assessment, as well as the guidelines for interpreting and communicating the results in writing of face-to-face. This course will stress the "whole person" approach to the individual assessment process. Also covered will be technical procedures, such as test development, selection, standardization, validity, and reliability. Prerequisites:PSY 685 PSy 810  

PSY 821 Measurement and Assessment: Groups (4 units)

This course examines the psychometric bases for measuring group processes and behavior, including the assessment6 of such constructs as leadership, group dynamics, group interaction, and group effectiveness. Research and evaluation strategies for assessment of group performance, functioning, and diagnosis will be studied. Prerequisite: PSY 811. 

PSY 822 Measurement and Assessment: Organizations (4 units)

Coverage in this course deals with the methods for diagnosing, measuring, and assessing institutional behavior, including organizational climate and character, analysis of transition, change management, and those internal and external factors which affect organizations. Both qualitative and quantitative assessment tools are considered. This course seeks an integration of theory, research, and consultation is assessing organizational behavior. Prerequisite: PSY 813.

PSY 825-827 Interventions [Individual/Group/Organizational]

As in the case of the three course sequence on individual, group and organizational measurement and assessment, this three course sequence will be taught around a single organizing theme.

Critical Theory Focus—The Culture Industry: One of the significant contributions of the Frankfurt School to an under-standing of contemporary ideology (false consciousness) was its analysis of culture, or what it referred to more precisely as the "culture industry." This term was employed in a seminal essay in Dialectic of Enlightenment and was entitled precisely, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.” The term was intended to emphasize the fact that culture in contemporary capitalist society was the product of an industry as much as were other economic productions. For crucial to the perspective of Adorno and Horkheimer was an insistence that one never overlook the material foundations of the supposed transcendence of culture, whether it be “high” or “mass” culture.

“Culture” is administered from above in contemporary capitalist society though it is crucial to its structure that it appear as a spontaneous popular expression. “Whoever speaks of culture speaks of administration as well.” And of course, administration occurs in the service of market exchange, though it is essential to its presence that is appear to challenge and transcend the principle that constitutes it. At its foundation, however, capitalism transforms culture from a process into a product. One of the crucial techniques the culture industry is to provide temporary relief from the ravages of capitalism in such a way as to reinforce the fundamental structures of capitalism. We will examine this tendency in great detail.

Given the great volume of writings that critical theory produced in regard to the “culture industry” we will have to focus carefully on some areas to the neglect of others. One of the areas that is particularly fruitful is film, a form that critical theory spent considerable time analyzing. Our selection of writings will be determined by the relevance of the films and analyses to the consideration of film as a “cultural product.” From this perspective, a work like Sigfried Kracauer’s From Caligari to Hitler can serve as an exemplary instance of such critique.

PSY 825 Interventions: Individuals (4 units)

A integration of theory and research regarding the states of adult and career development using programs, tools, and procedures for exploring the life and career aspirations of individuals and the means of linking these aspirations to organizational intentions. Programs and interventions which assist individuals in an organizational setting are emphasized, including life and career planning, outplacement and transition counseling, training and development, professional growth contracts, career ladders, performance appraisal and skills development. Prerequisite: PSY 810.

PSY 826 Interventions: Groups (4 units)

This course applies group theory and research findings toward the improvement of group functioning and performance. Attention is also given to designing and implementing interventions, such as process consultation, team building, communication enhancement, and group relations training. Prerequisite:PSY 811.

PSY 827 Interventions: Organizations (4 units)

This course applies organizational theory to the role of the professional consultant in the design and implementation of organizational interventions. Attention is given to issues of change (dynamics) and stabilization (statics); stages of organizational life; changes in structure, process, and attitude in such area as personnel selection, training and development; socio-technical consultation; job redesign; organizational learning; and appreciative inquiry. Prerequisite: PSY 813.  

PSY 840 Organizational Case Conference (3 units)

This seminar provides in-depth supervision in a group setting and explores the professional and personal issues emerging from students' roles as teachers, leaders, interventionists, and advocates. Students present cases, and class discussion centers on issues concerning their work in the field. the focus is on such topics as diagnosis, change, stabilization strategies, and reflective practice. This course meets various times over 3 quarters. Corequisite: Concurrent enrollment in PSY 805.

Critical Theory Focus: This tutorial program is founded on the basis not just of critical oversight, but also of critical engagement. To reiterate once again Marx’s phrase, the purpose of this tutorial program is not merely one of interpreting the world, it is also intended as a venue for guiding change in and of the world. Students are expected, in consultation with the tutor, to engage in one or more projects involving reform of existing social institutions or services, or creation of a new social institution or service aligned with the principles of demographic planning and participation. This course provides a forum for ongoing discussion regarding this critical engagement.  

PSY 854 Adult Learning (4 units)

An integration of needs theories, cognitive theory, and reinforcement theories with their influences on goal setting, job design, incentive systems, participatory decision making, and organizational effectiveness. Attention is also given to training theory, instructional design theory, training development, and delivery of training. The course will focus on the affective, cognitive, and psychomotor impact of adult learning. It will also cover theory and research on the different ways in which adults learn with programs, tools, and procedures for training, professional development, personal goal setting, job design, incentive programs, and organizational change efforts.

Critical Theory Focus: Adult learning theory will be engaged in an effort to assist students in planning for and reflecting on their work in the doctoral program: what has been learned about self and about society from the tutorial work, the engagement in the world, and the relationship established with the tutor and other participants in this intensive doctoral program.  

PSY 895 Dissertation Research Design (5 units)

This course is a practical pro-seminar on the nature and range of dissertation research. It emphasizes problem identification, steps in the research process, ethical considerations, and completion of a research proposal. Students should have a potential research topic area in mind before enrolling in this course. Class meetings are scheduled over two consecutive quarters. Prerequisite: Advancement to candidacy status through passing of doctoral comprehensive examinations.

PSY 896-899 Dissertation Research (15 units total)

Students work independently, with the guidance and collaboration of their dissertation committees, to execute an in-depth research project on an applied psychological topic and report their findings in dissertation format. The final dissertation is a major project that exhibits doctoral-level competence in the identification, analysis, and treatment of a complex psychological phenomenon, issue, or problem.