Psykoteknik : Kulturell fabricering av personlig identitet

Abstract: This dissertation is a broad socio-cultural study of psychotechnics in Sweden from 1943 to 1969. Using many different sorts of source material, such as psychological tests, public investigations, psychotechnology, articles in news journals, photos and sound recordings, psychotechnics is analysed as a cultural phenomenon. The aim of the study is to investigate the practice of psychotechnics related to the development of the Swedish welfare state after World War Two. The interpretation of many aspects of psychotechnics makes it possible to understand the establishment of norms, values, ideals and ideas about lifestyle, which in many ways influence the modern swede and his existence in society. The study is not a reconstruction of psychotechnics as historical fact. It is instead a deconstruction in the sense that many types of material are put apart and carefully analysed. The narrative of the study is an epistemological, biographical, ethnographic and historical story of psychotechnics. Three theoretical concepts, coined by the semiotic anthropologist Glifford Geertz, are used to capture the cultural aspects of this scientific practice called psychotechnics. The results of the study describe the world view of psychotechnics: how Swedish society and its people’s personal identities are revealed through psychotechnics. They also show some aspects of the ethos of psychotechnics, which include advice in social manners and how to act in public. Finally the world view and ethos of psychotechnics are related to each other in psychotechnics described as a cultural pattern.