Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, Vol. 00, No. 0, 2016, pp. 1--3 Socialism or Psychology: Society at the Crossroads Michael Arfken* University of Prince Edward Island In a recent article, Bernice Lott suggests that modern psychology has failed to investigate in any systematic fashion existing beliefs and attitudes surrounding socialism. While there is much to commend in Lott’s analysis, her support for a social democratic version of socialism tends to obscure the more revolutionary potentials of socialist practice. To adequately address social and environmental justice, I argue that the trajectory of psychological research and practice must be brought into alignment with a socialism that is committed to interrogating and ultimately destabilizing the capitalist mode of production. How can we reconcile our unparalleled progress in a wide range of human endeavors with the sobering fact that ours is an age of extreme social and economic inequality? Why have so many inherited the burdens rather than the benefits of our technological ingenuity and modern efficiency? In her most recent work— “Relevance to Psychology of Beliefs About Socialism”—Lott (2015) takes us on a tour of the various social and economic injustices that have become defining features of modern existence. While many of us have been down this road before, she adds another dimension by examining an economic doctrine that has the potential to bring many of these issues into sharper focus. Whereas socialism was for much of the last century a word Americans spoke rarely, softly, and only in good company, recent economic crises have given rise to a new generation that has little to lose and a world to gain from interrogating the legitimacy of a competitive market society. At the heart of Lott’s analysis is her steadfast commitment to uncovering the role that capitalism plays in producing and sustaining various forms of inequality. By stressing the fact that issues such as crime, literacy, mental illness, life ex- pectancy, and access to social services inevitably emerge against the background ∗ Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Michael Arfken, Department of Psychology, University of Prince Edward Island [marfken@upei.ca63]. 1 DOI: 10.1111/asap.12106 C  2016 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues