Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: Progressive politics needs therapy
- 2 A psychology-informed progressivism v1.0: socialist humanism
- 3 Understanding people: a contemporary framework
- 4 Wellbeing and distress: a directional account
- 5 Conflict and cooperation, inside and out
- 6 Common principles of positive change
- 7 Making it happen: concrete strategies for a psychology-informed progressivism
- 8 The further future: envisioning a progressive utopia
- 9 A day in utopia
- 10 In conclusion …
- Notes
- Index
9 - A day in utopia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: Progressive politics needs therapy
- 2 A psychology-informed progressivism v1.0: socialist humanism
- 3 Understanding people: a contemporary framework
- 4 Wellbeing and distress: a directional account
- 5 Conflict and cooperation, inside and out
- 6 Common principles of positive change
- 7 Making it happen: concrete strategies for a psychology-informed progressivism
- 8 The further future: envisioning a progressive utopia
- 9 A day in utopia
- 10 In conclusion …
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The previous chapter envisioned, conceptually, what a psychology-informed progressive society might look like. In this chapter, following the tradition of literary utopias, I want to take this description one step further by switching in to a narrative, fictional account of what it might be like to experience such a world. This chapter feels risky: I am not a fictional writer, and this is the first time I have included an entirely fictional section in any of my books. But I wanted to give as concrete and vivid as possible a sense of what that better world might look like – and feel like: How it might really be to be in this world. Because it is one thing to conceptualise a progressive utopia of creativity, relatedness, and care; and another to really explicate how people might actually live and coexist in such a world. This is particularly in the face of some of the fundamental psychological, social, and environmental challenges of existence. We cannot, for instance, always get our needs and wants met; we do not always get on with others; and we have to find ways of living within our environmental limits. What is more, if people are fundamentally directional, how do you create a world in which people can strive and struggle for things – with the potential for disappointment as well as achievement and success – while at the same time coexisting together in a safe, secure, and generally pleasurable way?
What follows, then, is a narrative account of how the principles laid out in the previous chapter of this book – and throughout it – might play out in practice. The focus is particularly on a world in which people are able to realise their creative and relational directions, with the skills to communicate honestly, warmly, and effectively with each other – and their world. As with the literary utopia genre, I have also used this narrative format to flesh out, in more detail, what the philosophy and principles of a psychology-informed progressive utopia might be. To emphasise, this is an entirely personal vision: I showed a draft of this chapter to one of my elder sisters, for instance, and she said she envisioned a progressive utopia entirely differently – a lot less drugs and a lot more vegetable allotments! But see what you think.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Psychology at the Heart of Social ChangeDeveloping a Progressive Vision for Society, pp. 273 - 288Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2023