ABSTRACT
This chapter elaborates on the suggestion of the philosopher Richard Bernstein that far from being value-free or value-neutral, the social sciences, including psychology, are animated at their core by a “disguised ideology.” That ideology, it is argued, is best conceived of as “liberal individualism,” virtually the credo of modern, society. Social science’s popularity and high regard seems due more to its ideological force than the success of any of its empirical claims. Liberal individualism conveys important moral ideals of respect for individual worth and rights. But it adopts a heavily one-sided anti-authoritarian outlook that tends to unravel in theory and practice in a way that engenders many familiar contemporary problems in living. It tends to support the narrow modern approach of control or elimination toward human suffering and fosters unique kinds of loneliness, debilitating stress, and suffering in its own right.
