Abstract
The paper examines the economic theory of consumer behavior from the Modern Psychoanalytic point of view with a metaphor of (transport) planning as a backdrop. It is claimed that the utility maximization principle of economic theory, no matter how broadly interpreted, does not envelop the motivation of human behavior and that the economic explanation of the aims of human behavior, which disregards the "dark side" of man, will result in narrowly conceived plans and policies.
The application of economic theory, and other social sciences, to public policy has led to disjointedness of data collection, method of analysis, and planning and implementation. This, combined with a tautological behavioral theory, has made the current planning and public policy procedures self-verifying, and issues an invitation for a new theoretical approach which is comprehensive, does not ignore complexity and the large "error term", and appreciates the unity of data collection, method of investigation, and process of implementation.
It is argued that unsatisfactory performance of the transport system, large errors inherent in data and models, the inability of extant transportation planning and policy to address key issues successfully, the environmental problem, and the value of the individual all call for new kinds of skills from the planners and policy makers.
Freud's dualistic formulation of instinctual drives -- the life and death instincts -- is used as the new framework of explanation. This theory is seen to offer a convincing, more realistic and deeper understanding of the forces motivating human behavior, and one which is more in accordance with observable facts. If applied, the theory will lead to significantly different planning processes and to a profoundly different approach to public policy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aaron HJ (1994) Public policy, values, and consciousness. Journal of Economic Perspectives 8(2): 3–21.
Achen C (1982) Interpreting and Using Regression. California: Sage, Beverly Hills.
Becker G (1976) The Economic Approach to Human Behavior. University of Chicago Press.
Blaug M (1978) Economic Theory in Retrospect. Cambridge University Press, third edition.
Bonsall P & Wyhets M (1993) Non-response Bias in Roadside Mail-Back Surveys, Paper presented at the 21st meeting of the PTRC, Manchester, UK.
Brenner C (1993) Modern Conflict Theory or Beyond the Ego and the Id (unpublished paper).
Coase RH (1988) The Firm, The Market, and The Law. The University of Chicago Press.
Edelson M (1984) Hypothesis and Evidence in Psychoanalysis. University of Chicago Press.
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (1993) Comments by Mr. Wilhelm from the GTZ on the World Bank Study-Infrastructure Sector Policy Review.
Freud S (1920a) Beyond the Pleasure Principle (standard edition) 18: 3–54.
Freud S (1920b) The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman (standard edition) 18: 146–172.
Freud S (1923) The Ego and the Id (standard edition) 19: 3–66.
Freud S (1924) The Economic Problem of Masochism (standard edition) 19: 157–170.
Freud S (1930) Civilization and Its Discontents (standard edition) 21: 59–145.
Freud S (1932) New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis (standard edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud) 22.
Frey BS (1992) Economics as a Science of Human Behavior. Boston/Dordrecht/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Friedman M (1952) The methodology of positive economics, reprinted from Essays in Positive Economics (pp 3–43) 1935, in Readings in Microeconomics(pp 23–47). Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Gliserman M (1993) Contact function: a theoretical and historical framework. Modern Psychoanalysis XVIII(2): 215–234.
Glymour C (1980) Theory and Evidence. Princeton University Press.
Grunbaum A (1984) The Foundations of Psychoanalysis. A Philosophical Critique. University of California Press.
Hall C (1954) A Primer of Freudian Psychology. NY: Mentor Book, American New Library.
Hau T (1992) Economic Fundamentals Pricing: A Diagrammatic Analysis, Policy Research Working Papers WPS 1070. Infrastructure and Urban Development Department, The World Bank.
Hawking S (1988) A Brief History of Time (The Finnish Edition: Ajan Lyhyt Historia) WSOY, Porvoo.
Horney K (1937) The Neurotic Personality of Our Time. N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company.
Jones P (1979) HATS: A technique for investigating household decisions. Environment and Planning A 11(1): 59–70.
Kessel RA (1952) Price discrimination in medicine, reprinted from Journal of Law and Economics (pp 20–53) 1958, in Readings in Microeconomics(pp 317–346). Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Knight F (1933) Social and economic organization, in The Economic Organization, Harper & Row.
Mackay N (1989) Motivation and explanation: an essay on Freud's philosophy of science. Psychological Issues Monograph 56. Madison, CT: International University Press.
McFadden D (1974) Conditional logit analysis of qualitative choice behavior. In: Zarembka P (ed) Frontiers in Econometrics. New York: Academic Press.
McKinder I & Evans SE (1981) The Predictive Accuracy of British Transport Studies in Urban Areas, Transport and Road Research Laboratory Report.
Meadow P (1974) A Research methodology for investigating the effectiveness of psychoanalytic techniques. The Psychoanalytic Review 61: 79–94.
Meadow (1922) Is psychoanalysis a science? Modern Psychoanalysis 17(2).
Meadow P (1993) Psychoanalysis: An Open System of Research, Boston Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies (unpublished paper).
Nagel (1961) The Structure of Science. N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & World.
Pickrell R (1989) Urban Rail Transit Projects: Forecasts Versus Actual Ridership and Costs, Cambridge, USA: US Department of Transportation, Research and Special Programs Administration, Transportation Systems Center.
Popper K (1962) Science, Pseudo-Science, and Falsifiability (Selection 12) and “The Myth of Inductive Hypothesis Generation” (Selection 9) in On Scientific Thinking (Selection 12). N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 1981. First published in 1962.
Posner RA (1993) Ronald Coase and methodology. Journal of Economic Perspective 7(4): 195–210.
Scitovsky T (1972) What's wrong with the arts is what's wrong with society. The American Economic Review LXII(2): 62–69.
Sen A (1979) Rational fools: a critique of the behavioral foundations of economic theory. In: Henry Harris (ed) Scientific Models of Man, The Herbert Spencer Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford 1976. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Solow R (1992) Economic history and economics. AEA Papers and Proceedings 75(2): 328–331.
Spotnitz H (1985) Modern Psychoanalysis of the Schizophrenic Patient, Theory of the Technique. N.Y.: Human Sciences Press. (first edition, 1961).
Sugden R (1993) Welfare, resources, and capabilities: a review of inequality reexamined by Amartaya Sen. Journal of Economic Literature XXXI: 1947–1962.
Sulloway F (1979) Freud - Biologist of the Mind. N.Y.: Basic Books, Inc.
Talvitie A (1976) Disaggregate travel demand models with disaggregate data, not with aggregate data, and for what. Working Paper No. 7615, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California Berkeley.
Talvitie A & Kirshner D (1978) Specification, transferability and the effect of data outliers in modeling the choice of mode in urban travel. Transportation 7: 311–331.
Talvitie A & Dehghani Y (1979) Comparison of observed and coded network travel time and cost measurements. TRB Record 723: 46–51. See also: Talvitie A, Inaccurate or incomplete data as a source of uncertainty in econometric or attitudinal models of travel behavior. In: Brog W, Mayburg AH & Stopher PR (eds) New Horizons in Travel Behavior.Lexington, USA: D.C. Heath.
Talvitie A & Dehghani Y et al. (1981) Final Report: Refinement and Application of Disaggregate Travel Demand Models. Buffalo: State University of New York.
Talvitie A, Morris M & Anderson M (1981) An assessment of land use and socioeconomic forecasts in the Baltimore region. Transportation Research Record.
Talvitie A (1982) A Look at the Conceptual Foundations of the Transportation Planning Process. Paper presented in the Conference on Economic Stagnation, Zandvoort, Netherlands.
Talvitie A & Sikow C (1992) Analysis of productivity in highway construction using alternative average cost definitions. Transportation Research 26B(6): 461–478.
Taylor C (1990) Irreducibly social goods. In: Brennan G & Walsh C (eds) Rationality, Individualism, and Public Policy (pp 45–63). Canberra: Centre for Research on Federal Financial Relations, Australia.
Webber M (1976) The BART experience - what have we learned? Monograph No. 26. Berkeley: Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California.
Widlert S (1993) Home Interviews Versus Mail-back Interviews - A Comparison. Paper presented at the 21st meeting of the PTRC, Manchester, UK.
Winston C (1993) Economic deregulation: Days of reckoning for microeconomists. Journal of Economic Literature Vol. XXXI.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Talvitie, A. Things planners believe in, and things they deny. Transportation 24, 1–31 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017957016112
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017957016112