'Foo'
Davies graduated in Arts from Melbourne University in 1945, joining
the staff as a lecturer the following year. He spent periods of study
at the London School of Economics Sociology School in 1950 and the Tavistock
Institute of Human Relations in 1958.
Although his working life was essentially spent in the Melbourne University
Department of Political Science, his influence extended far beyond it:
he was Visiting Professor at the University of Alberta in 1967 and 1974
and Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard in 1980-81. Davies was
appointed Professor in 1968 and the Melbourne Politics School became
the focus of the Melbourne Psychosocial Group.
Davies described himself as a "social psychologist". He had
undergone psychoanalysis himself and saw Political Psychology as having
direct relevance for commentators and practitioners alike.
As a teacher, Davies inspired loyalty and emulation. Graham Little,
one of his most like-minded and influential colleagues, commented that,
although students might at first find him "odd, elusive and frequently
incomprehensible", eventually they "rose to him, and to their
own best work". For postgraduate students, he was an exceptional
supervisor, sending each student away "inspired with the importance
of his or her project and full of new ideas for it".
Davies was a prolific author, publishing stories, reviews and more
than 20 papers on political theory, political sociology and social applications
of psychoanalysis. Early works on local government and Australian politics
were followed in 1965 by Australian Society, which he co-edited with
Sol Encel. It marked the beginning of sociology as a discipline in Australia.
Among his other works, Private Politics: A Study of Five Political
Outlooks (1966) and Skills, Outlooks and Passions: A Psychoanalytic
Contribution to the Study of Politics (1980) greatly influenced his
colleagues. Dream analysis formed the basis of one of the University
courses he offered. Davies was working on a book on his dreams when
he died and had kept day books and dream diaries for more than 40 years.
