My Talk at the Heterodox Social Science Conference

I wanted to share with all of my subscribers (welcome to the many new subscribers in the last month!) the presentation I gave at the inaugural Heterodox Social Science Conference at the University of Buckingham in the U.K this past June¹. I am currently an honorary research fellow in their new Centre for Heterodox Social Science. The full set of talks given at the conference can also be found on the Centre’s YouTube page. One primary outcome of this conference was the production of an intellectual manifesto (which I was a signee of) that calls for, in the words of centre director

Eric Kaufmann

:

“a high cultural and research agenda for a post-progressive age. One that gets beyond the cultural left worldview that has dominated western intellectual life for the past 60 years.”

Much more detail can be found in this overview of the conference from

Eric Kaufmann

which I highly recommend you consider checking out.

The core of my presentation is organized by several pieces I have written and published here, especially my essays on the Internalizing and Cluster B Crisis (2022) and my essay on The Abolition of Mental Health Stigma (2023). In addition, I have been invited to prepare a submission to the special issue of the journal Theory and Society (see below) which I have begun preliminary writing on. It will be entitled “Retrospect & Prospect: A Post-Progressive Developmental (Evolutionary) Psychopathology.” This essay will focus on what a post-progressive social science might look like in terms of substantive focus and research agendas for developmental evolutionary psychopathology. Like many disciplines, the field of developmental evolutionary psychopathology has been co-opted by social justice ideology over the last decade. In the piece, I will outline what I see are crucial steps to take to reverse this subversion, most importantly by returning to a balanced focus on biological and social factors in cognitive and behavioral outcomes.

I will be sure to share that work here as well when the time comes.

Please feel free to comment about the talk below.

I also want to especially thank my paid subscribers as your financial support was crucial in allowing me the opportunity and intellectual space to pursue the work I presented. Paid support is critical and I would be most grateful if you would consider a paid subscription if you are currently on the free plan.

1. The video is best viewed using the picture-in-picture mode.