The expendable prolympic self: Going beyond the boundaries of the sociology and psychology of sport

This article offers a proposal for combining the sport sociological and spo rt psychological imaginations. In order to effect this rapprochement, some serious adjustments to the ways in which many applied sport psychologists a nd spore sociologists think about and conduct research are required. Thus, the initial part of this article expresses some critiques, albeit brief, of current tendencies within both sport sociology and sport psychology. We de emed these critiques necessary to advance a neo-Millsian position on the ar ticulation of social structure and personality. This neo-Millsian position draws on the ego-psychoanalytical tradition to offer suggestions for how we might reconceive the problems of indispensability/expendability in the Pro lympic structures of sport and for how we might, using a life-histories (bi ographical) methodology, engage in useful or practical research, especially on the problematics of how individuals handle/mishandle early, pre-career, and mid-career failure, and, in the long-run, inevitable failure at the en d of their careers. Where, then, is the common ground between sport sociolo gy and sport psychology? We argue that it is the analysis of ego-practices and ego-defenses as learned, consciously or unconsciously, over our biograp hical lives as they intersect with, and are contoured by, social history an d social structure.