Psychologists and other folks: Comments on psychology as a science in between self-knowledge and otherness

Sverre Wide

doi:10.1177/0959354320923038

Abstract

Barbara Held (2020) discusses the claim that mainstream psychology tends to exert epistemic violence on so-called “othered” groups. Held shows, however, (a) that the idea of different epistemologies underpinning some such arguments is a difficult matter, (b) that folk notions (and theories) sometimes hailed as an antidote to the alleged othering might themselves at times be oppressive, and (c) that so-called mainstream psychology in fact can well serve progressive and critical purposes. Thus, Held problematizes the distinction made between psychology about (from above) and psychology of and from (from below); that is, she finds the distinction unconvincing and rather problematic as it stands. Yet, she does not seem to wish to do away with it all together. In this comment, I relate her discussion to a wider scientific debate on othering, and, by way of an ending, offer an alternative metaphor: psychology from the flank.

Highlights

Barbara Held (2020) discusses the claim—or accusation—that mainstream psychology tends to exert epistemic violence on so-called “othered” groups. She is not wholly unsympathetic to this claim. She shows (a) that the idea of different epistemologies underpinning some such arguments is a difficult matter, (b) that folk notions sometimes hailed as an antidote to the alleged othering might themselves at times be oppressive, and (c) that so-called mainstream psychology can well serve progressive and critical purposes
She problematizes the distinction made between psychology about and psychology of and from; that is, she finds the distinction unconvincing and rather problematic as it stands
The first way is and solely to register knowledge as a plain fact among other facts: it is an ascertained fact that this group thinks that X, and that this thinking can be related to factors Y, Z, and so forth. This is a somewhat crude “scientific” way of approaching the knowledge of the other; no doubt it is a kind of othering of the other’s knowledge

Summary

Introduction

Barbara Held (2020) discusses the claim—or accusation—that mainstream psychology tends to exert epistemic violence on so-called “othered” groups. Othering as such is not a new phenomenon, neither as a psychological and social fact, nor as a research object.

Results

Conclusion