| In this study, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is examined as an expression and transmission of assumptions and practices regarding language, authors, science, reality, politics, and knowledge. Approaches to the text used draw from literary theory informed by phenomenology, structuralism, psychoanalysis, and post-structuralism. Initially, eight random samples were analysed according to their portrayal of characters and relationships (e.g., authors, editors, APA), statement categories (of fact, value, or policy), ideals (of thought and activity), assumptions, and its style, content, and modes of narration. These readings set the stage for a second reading which yielded the substance of three main interpretive chapters (III, IV, V). Chapter III, "In the Shadow of Scientific Writing," is concerned with what counts as scientific writing and what is excluded but appears to recur in manuscripts submitted for publication. The "experimental report" is seen as the transcendental model around which the Manual's own interpretive structure is developed. The reading author is coached to avoid "literary elegancae" and other practices which contradict the Manual's vision of clear, economical, and smooth expression. Chapter IV, "Group Relations and the Morality of Authorship," shows the imaginary interpersonal context in which this takes place. The narrator involves the reader in a "guidance" relationship with the Manual, while characterizing role interactions amongst many key figures in the publication process. The reader of the Manual is presented with many opportunities for identification with a number of these figures, thus internalizing its editorial and moral sensibility. Chapter V, "The Production of Psychological Discourse," examines transformations of text-products and issues of form and content, ownership, time, money, and the attendant human relations of production. The assembly-line quality of production serves the consumption and assimilation of ideas denuded of apparent emotional and political valences. The final chapter (VI) summarizes implications of this study, particularly those involving the Manual's potential impact on psychological knowledge, thought and practice. |
