^aDepartment of Social and Political Studies, School of Social Science, Humanities and Languages, Westminster University, London

Correspondence: Professor Mike O'Donnell, Sociology, 309 Regent Street, W1B 2UW UK. E-mail: odonnem@wmin.ac.uk

Abstract

This article analyses the psychodynamics underlying 1960s radicalism – termed the Movement – in the United States and, more briefly, Britain. The Movement was heuristic and characterized by "utopian" and "humanistic" tendencies. The main sections deal respectively with the counterculture and the New Left. Criticisms of the Movement by liberals contemporary with the radicals and those of more recent commentators are addressed. Analysis of the radical/liberal debate examines two related themes: conflicting psychoanalytic interpretations of the Movement and "the end of ideology" debate. The main ideological formations dealt with are characterized as radical utopianism, liberal realism and postmodern scepticism.