Psychopolitics Of Speech

The human capacity for speech is forever celebrated as evidence of its innate civility. Why, then, is public discourse often - and today more than ever, it would seem - so uncivil, even delusional? The reason, argues James Martin in this timely book, lies in the way speech works to organise desire. More than knowledge or rational interests, public speech services an unconscious urge for a lost enjoyment, stimulating an excess in subjectivity that moves us in body and mind. James Martin draws upon the work of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan as well as other Continental thinkers to set out a new approach to the analysis of rhetoric and answer the troubling question of whether civil discourse can ever hope to escape its obscene underside.

Exploring how neoliberalism has discovered the productive force of the psyche Byung-Chul Han, a star of German philosophy, continues his passionate critique of neoliberalism, trenchantly describing a regime of technological domination that, in contrast to Foucault’s biopower, has discovered the productive force of the psyche. In the course of discussing all the facets of neoliberal psychopolitics fueling our contemporary crisis of freedom, Han elaborates an analytical framework that provides an original theory of Big Data and a lucid phenomenology of emotion. But this provocative essay proposes counter models too, presenting a wealth of ideas and surprising alternatives at every turn.

Since the publication of Vygotsky’s Thought and Language in the United States, a number of North American and European investigators have conducted systematic observations of children’s spontaneous private speech, giving substantial support to Vygotsky’s major hypotheses — particularly those regarding the social origins of higher psychological functions. However, there still remain many vital questions about the origins, significance, and functions of private speech: How can social and private speech be validly differentiated? What kinds of social interactions promote the use of private speech? What are the sources of individual differences in the use of private speech? This unique volume addresses these and many other important questions. Characterized by a strong emphasis on original data, it reports on systematic observations of spontaneous private speech in children and adults in both laboratory and naturalistic settings. In addition to its systematic analysis of common methodological problems in the field, the book contains the most comprehensive bibliography of the private speech literature currently available.

DONALD K. ROUTH WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT A reader who happens onto this book on the library shelf may find the title a puzzle. Learning is one broad subject. Speech is another. And the "complex effects of punishment" might seem far afield from either. Perhaps, intrigued by this apparent diversity and wanting to discover what common theme underlies it, the reader may begin leafing through the chapters. The first one recounts a series of studies of rats-using learning techniques from the psychology laboratory, to be sure, but applied to the study of behavior genetics, sex differences, and aging. The second chapter has to do with young children's discrimination learning. Then, there is a chapter on learning sets. Next, there is a chapter on stuttering. Then the topic shifts back to the study of learning in rats. Then, there is a clinical chapter on punishment effects. Finally, there is a historically oriented essay on Iowa psychology graduates. Surely, by now the puzzled reader wants an explana tion of why such diversity belongs between the covers of a single book.

The major portion of the investigations described in the present volume would never have been undertaken without the generous support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Society). During my professorship at the University of Marburg, I could not have carried on with my work in the psychology of language had it not been for the aid offered by this institution. Since these experimental investigations constitute the empirical backbone of the entire argument, I feel especially indebted to the Society. My warm thanks are also extended to the over two thousand subjects whose willing cooperation enabled my associates and myself to collect the body of data reported in these pages. I would like to thank the many parents, teachers, and school principals whose good will and collaboration were the prerequisites for conducting many of our experiments. The book also incorporates valuable contributions by my associates, insofar as my ideas and arguments bear the imprint of our joint work and discussion, to an extent that makes an accurate acknowledgement of each inspiration next to impossi ble. Giving them due credit, I would like to thank my assistants, the graduating students, and the student-aides back in Marburg and more recently in Mannheim.

First published in 1933, The Psychology of Effective Speaking studies voice as an expression of personality. This book also criticises the education of its time, but not always destructively. It asks why, since people speak, they should not speak better. It suggests that if democracy is to succeed, rapid increase in the effectiveness of vocal communication is urgently necessary, and that this improvement begin in the lower classes of the schools. This book will be of interest to students of rhetoric, communication and psychology.

Seventy-five years after Vygotsky's death, scholarship exploring developmental relations between language and thought continues to be strong. This edited volume compiles contributions from international leaders in the field on the roles of language and private speech (self-talk) in the development of self-regulation and executive functioning in children and adults. New theoretical insights, empirical research, and potential clinical and educational applications of scholarship on private speech are presented. Relevant for undergraduate and graduate students and scholars of psychology, education, linguistics, and cognitive science, this text will be an essential volume for those interested in the interface between language, cognition, and behaviour, and the development of regulatory or cognitive control over behaviour.