Robert Maxwell Young was an American-born historian of science specialising in the 19th century and particularly Darwinian thought, a philosopher of the biological and human sciences, and a Kleinianpsychotherapist.
In various books and papers he argued that science, technology and medicine—far from being value-neutral—are the embodiment of values in theories, things and therapies, in facts and artefacts, in procedures and programs. Succinctly put, all facts are theory-laden, all theories are value-laden, and all values occur within an ideology or world view. Scientists and technologists pursue agendas; they have philosophies of nature, world views, usually tacitly held. In studies extending across a broad spectrum of disciplines he has argued that our culture is disastrously riven. It is characterised by sharp dichotomies, each and every one of which is a false dichotomy, but our beliefs in them preclude unified deliberations about the scientific and the moral: humanities - science society - science culture - nature qualitative - quantitative value - fact purpose - mechanism subject - object internal - external secondary- primary thought - extension mind - body character - behaviour In order to foster such unified deliberations he set up the publishing house Free Association Books which published in the areas of cultural theory, critiques of expertise, and psychoanalysis, broadly conceived. The press has been called, inter alia, 'the most important influence on the culture of psychoanalysis since the war'. He also trained as a Kleinian psychoanalytic psychotherapist and began writing on psychoanalysis, but he continued writing and editing in the areas of social theory, the philosophy of science and Darwinian thought and its impact on culture. He then became the first professor of Psychoanalytic Studies and of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, posts he held at the Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies at the University of Sheffield Medical School until his retirement, after which he worked in private practice in London. He was a registrant of the British Psychoanalytic Council. The unifying thread in his research, political activities, writing and clinical practice was the understanding of human nature and the alleviation of suffering and inequality. His work was typically interdisciplinary, seeking to promote unity in how we think about nature, human nature and culture. In addition to his books, listed below, he wrote numerous scholarly and popular articles, as well as making a number of television documentaries in the series Crucible: Science in Society. He also founded Free Association Books, Process Press, Radical Science Journal, Science as Culture, Free Associations and Kleinian Studies, as well as a number of email forums and egroups in his areas of interest and the websites.
Personal life
In 1964, Young married Sheila Ernst, with whom he lived for a time in a commune in Chesterton.
