SMF205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Binary Opposition, Michel Foucault, System On A Chip

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Sexuality, Marriage, and Family Studies
• Course: SMF205
• Professor: Jane Nicholas

Document Summary

Psychology and the construction of the normal" family in postwar canada, 1945-60. The assumption framing these discussions was that the long years of economic depression and war had left canadian families shaken and in need of strengthening. I argue that psychologists" discussions of normal families and normal family members were shaped not by objective, unchanging scientific truths" but by the hegemonic values and priorities of the middle class in postwar canada. To the traditional dichotomies used to characterize families, such as bad or good, weak or strong, was added another binary opposition: normal or abnormal. Cultural traditions regarding family life and parenting deemed un-canadian" were discouraged in popular psychological discourse on the grounds that they jeopardized children"s ability to adjust successfully to society. The normal family that this discourse constructed had mothers who stayed at home and raised well-adjusted, bright, industrious children, and white-collar fathers who skilfully divided time between the office and home.