Once Upon a Time, Materiality: A Possible Scenario for Psychology in the Nature/culture Divide

Abstract

The present essay draws on the book “What if Culture was Nature All Along?” (Eds. Vicki Kirby, 2017) and on Karen Barad’s influence to discuss some main concepts of the so-called new materialism in social sciences and humanities over the last decade. It will bring the reader to come across the nature/culture divide as something inherently incorrect from an ontological point of view. Moreover, through different case-studies ranging from allergy, race, paternal post-natal depression, etc. I intend to give some insights into the most controversial and the most insightful attempts to see culture as nothing outside biology in social sciences, and psychology as well. I will then argue how Kirby’s and Barad’s perspective can be a good starting point to re-think critical theory and power-relations as always enmeshed in tangibility, and I will suggest some more empirical patterns for a new material psychological knowledge.