Self‐structure Singularity: Considerations for Agential Realism in Critical Psychology

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper I encourage consideration of a self‐structure singularity such that structural forces like racism or capitalism do not bear influence on individual actors in a given social field. Instead, individuals enact those forces through carrying out even the smallest of everyday occurrences. Structural forces emergent as individual actions and lived experiences can be understood through the lens of Karen Barad's agential realism as a materially discursive apparatus in lieu of being conceptualized as separate, mutually exclusive indices of social behavior worthy of theoretical consideration in their own right. Further, I propose autoethnography as a method by which critical psychologists can initially engage with the mutual instantiation of structures and lives. I encourage self‐structure examination through critical autoethnographic practices as an initial way to recognize self‐structure singularity in one's own life so as to facilitate a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the societal groups or individuals a critical psychologist desires to study.