Social Sciences as Sorcery

Translated from English by Dmitry Kralechkin. – Moscow: Gaidar Institute Press, 2025. – 336 p. 

ISBN 978-5-93255-693-1

In this provocative and witty work, the Polish-born British sociologist Stanislaw Andreski (1919–2007) mercilessly criticizes the state of contemporary social sciences. The author argues that much of sociological and psychological research has become a kind of “academic witchcraft,” a ritualized production of pseudoscientific texts that mask banal observations behind complex terminology and methodological formalism.

Andreski draws striking parallels between traditional magical practices and contemporary social research, demonstrating how the academic establishment uses obscure jargon and methodological rituals to maintain its status, while often failing to produce truly useful knowledge. The author calls for a return to clarity of thought, clarity of presentation and a genuinely scientific approach in the social sciences.

The book, first published in 1972, remains a pertinent warning against pseudoscientific and a reminder that the social sciences should strive for a true understanding of society rather than an imitation of scholarship.