Although 1961 is unanimously indicated in the literature as the year of birth of the theory of so... more Although 1961 is unanimously indicated in the literature as the year of birth of the theory of social representations, in coincidence with publication La Psychanalyse, son image et son public, Moscovici had begun his research around one decade before that date, and he had also published preliminary results well before 1961 1 , La Psychanalyse, son image et son public, in its 1961 edition, is without doubt the opera prima as well as the opus magnum in which Moscovici systematically set forth his theory of social representations developed from his empirical research on the phenomenon-never so topical and controversial as at that time-of the diffusion of psychoanalysis in France. Moscovici's choice of psychoanalysis (as both a theory and a therapeutic practice)-an object of knowledge/experience much discussed in France during the 1950s-was prompted by his intent to study the transformations, the similarities and/or differences between expert knowledge and everyday knowledge, between science and common sense, between "reified universes" and "consensual universes" with their specific modes of operation (processes) and functions in the broader symbolic system of social relations and ideological positions 1 I have elsewhere (de Rosa, 2011a,) examined the embryogenetic period of the theory of social representations in light of Moscovici's publications between
Although 1961 is unanimously indicated in the literature as the year of birth of the theory of so... more Although 1961 is unanimously indicated in the literature as the year of birth of the theory of social representations, in coincidence with publication La Psychanalyse, son image et son public, Moscovici had begun his research around one decade before that date, and he had also published preliminary results well before 1961 1 , La Psychanalyse, son image et son public, in its 1961 edition, is without doubt the opera prima as well as the opus magnum in which Moscovici systematically set forth his theory of social representations developed from his empirical research on the phenomenon-never so topical and controversial as at that time-of the diffusion of psychoanalysis in France. Moscovici's choice of psychoanalysis (as both a theory and a therapeutic practice)-an object of knowledge/experience much discussed in France during the 1950s-was prompted by his intent to study the transformations, the similarities and/or differences between expert knowledge and everyday knowledge, between science and common sense, between "reified universes" and "consensual universes" with their specific modes of operation (processes) and functions in the broader symbolic system of social relations and ideological positions 1 I have elsewhere (de Rosa, 2011a,) examined the embryogenetic period of the theory of social representations in light of Moscovici's publications between
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