Sacks and Psychology

Abstract

Sacks's lectures are the historical foundation of conversation analysis (CA), the empirical study of talk as social activity. Sacks developed the implications of his analyses mostly for social science. This review highlights various implications for psychology, and especially for studies of language, cognition and social interaction. Sacks's `social action' rather than `communication' approach to talk, including his notion of `subversion', contradicts common assumptions that CA is inherently consensualist. His legacy provides a challenge to psychological theories of discourse and cultural knowledge, and a rigorous empirical methodology for developing it.