Critical Psychology Research Articles

Auto-ethnography and psy-critique in Covid times. A book review essay of Ian Parker’s Psychology through Critical Auto-ethnography

ABSTRACT This book review essay of Ian Parker’s Psychology through Critical Auto-ethnography has three objectives. The first is to provide an assessment of Parker’s unique contribution to the field of Critical Psychology. Parker’s critique of the psy-sciences is shown to offer a key challenge not only to mainstream psychology but also to those who envision themselves working in the field of Critical Psychology: how not to relapse in the traps of mainstream psychology and psychologisation? The second objective is to scrutinize Parker’s idiosyncratic use of the methodology of auto-ethnography. Here it is argued, again, that Parker’s appropriation of this method not only is ideally positioned to question the problematic field of mainstream psychology, but also opens up a different perspective on subjectivity and sociality that should challenge Critical Psychology. The third objective is to apply these insights to the Covid crisis: if Parker enjoins us to step outside the psy-complex and “find many other ways to live together without it,” the entry of mainstream psychology into the Covid-debate, claiming expert knowledge on how we should live apart/together, should be confronted head-on. To achieve these three objectives, the author also uses a moderate dose of auto-ethnography.

Daily life and school engagement: An empirical study privileging the first-person perspectives of unaccompanied asylum-seeking adolescents in a Danish context

Drawing on the tradition of the Danish–German school of critical psychology, this empirical study discusses seven unaccompanied asylum-seeking adolescents’ experiences of the process of applying for asylum in Denmark. By privileging the first-person perspectives of the adolescents, the authors explore the conduct of their everyday lives at the asylum centre and at school. The project’s findings emphasise the societal, political, social and spatial conditions that contribute to the lack of meaningfulness the adolescents experienced regarding their engagement in schooling. In conclusion, the authors reflect on the potential in privileging the first-person perspective in social pedagogical work.

‘It’s time we invested in stronger borders’: media representations of refugees crossing the English Channel by boat

ABSTRACT Refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea in small boats has become a common sight in the media, particularly since the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015. The number of boats crossing the English Channel between the French and UK coasts has been increasing as other migration routes have been closed down. This article reports the findings of a discourse analysis of 96 UK newspaper articles published in December 2018 when the daily crossings were referred to as a ‘major crisis’. Adopting a broadly critical discursive psychology perspective, we identify the use of three main interpretative repertoires used within the media reporting. Firstly, a ‘secure the borders’ repertoire which positions the UK’s borders as porous and easily breached, secondly, a ‘smuggling is immoral’ repertoire which works to position smugglers as to blame for the current ‘crisis’ and removes responsibility for the crisis from the Government, and finally, a ‘desperate people’ repertoire which worked to position the refugees themselves as vulnerable and in need of protection, but also as people who will engage in risky behaviours. We suggest that the use of these repertoires ultimately functions to obscure the need for safe and legal migration routes to the UK.

Recognition Struggles of Young Danes Under the Work First Paradigm - a Study of Restricted and Generalised Agency

Work has become ‘a normatively charged concept, one in which normative expectations and the current form of a society’s relation to work have become sedimented’ (Jaeggi, 2016:70). Critical theorists have observed how work is linked to recognition and self-realization. Consequently, they see how unemployment can lead to a sense of alienation. Exploring the social practices among young entrepreneurial creative people receiving unemployment benefits in Denmark, we pose the following research question: how do young people in the unemployment benefit system work within and against the system? Based on interviews with young unemployed people conducted as part of a PhD (Pultz, 2017), we aim to unfold how the young people challenge the ‘work first paradigm’, including resisting the neoliberal understanding that human worth is determined by employment status. We combine insight from critical theory in order to understand the current work pathologies and apply the critical psychological concepts of restricted and expansive agency to shed light on how our sample engages in recognition struggles. They do so by seeking to gain influence over conditions and simultaneously resisting structures that restrict subjective agency in the spheres of love, achievement and rights. We will use this combined macro- and micro-level theoretical framework to analyse subjective reasoning for expansive agency embedded in an institutional and political context that reflects the work pathology diagnosis and produces its own dilemmas that need further understanding. Combining critical theory, more specifically Axel Honneth’s work on recognition with critical psychology, allows us to move beyond deterministic holds and to improve our understanding of agentic potential in society. Improving our understanding of how young unemployed people work within and against the system helps us better understand how individuals navigate the complex relations between societal structures and the self.

Mental health issues and needs of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, refugee claimants and refugees in Toronto, Canada

ABSTRACT LGBTQ+ people experience mental health challenges due to their minoritized status, systemic inequities and structural disparities. For LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, refugee claimants and refugees the impact on their mental health can be compounding. This study, which featured a series of focus groups with LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, refugee claimants and refugees in Toronto, Canada, was part of a larger international study ‘Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights’ that looked at colonising effects on LGBTQ people in the Commonwealth. The migration process, – often forced due to persecution in their country of origin based on sexual orientation or gender identity and expression – produced traumatic experiences involving life-changing decisions, accessing information and resources, cultural shifts, conceptualisation of identities, and navigating the refugees claims process. The specialised experiences of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, refugee claimants and refugees can have a deleterious effect on their mental health that a critical psychology perspective can address clinically by recognising the particularised needs of this population and systemically by addressing the structural inequities.

The qualitative imagination in counseling psychology: Enhancing methodological rigor across methods.

Fifteen years have passed since the publication of a landmark issue of the Journal of Counseling Psychology on qualitative and mixed methods research (Haverkamp et al., 2005), which signaled a methodological shift in counseling psychology and related fields. At the time, qualitative research was certainly less popular in the field and arguably less respected than it is now. This special issue charts advances in qualitative and mixed methods research since the publication of that issue, reflects on how these diverse approaches are conducted today, and points toward new methodological frontiers. The articles in this special issue include a range of methodological tools and theoretical perspectives that extend thinking about the ethics, practice, evaluation, and implications of psychological research. Notably, the articles are linked by a shared commitment to conducting psychological research critically-that is, to both critique dominant norms in the discipline and to sensitize psychological methods to power and inequality-and to advancing social justice. In this introduction, the guest editors survey authors' contributions and synthesize their insights to offer recommendations for future qualitative and mixed methods work in the field, particularly in terms of interdisciplinarity, methodological rigor, critical psychology, and social justice. They propose that counseling psychologists should cultivate a "qualitative imagination" with respect to all forms of empirical research (qualitative and quantitative) and offer specific guidance for enhancing methodological sophistication and sensitivity to power. Accordingly, this special issue is an important opportunity to set an agenda for the next decade-plus of critical inquiry in counseling psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Social justice and career development: Progress, problems, and possibilities

Drawing on scholarship in the fields of vocational and industrial/organizational (VIO) psychology, we propose a definition of social justice and assess progress and problems in achieving it. Using a critical psychology lens, we find that the historical focus on higher-income settings and workers with relatively privileged status reflects the neoliberal underpinning implicit in most of VIO psychology. We identify five marginalizing conditions that act at macro levels to perpetuate the status quo and restrict progress toward social justice: group bias, forced movement of people, poverty, unemployment, and lack of decent work. Our review of these conditions accentuates the necessity of social justice praxis at multiple ecological levels to effect significant progress. We propose a set of recommendations for the future that highlight the importance of articulating and deconstructing context, power, and perception implicit in extant VIO endeavors. Our recommendations challenge the field to: (1) extend the scope of the locations and range of ecological levels at which VIO research and practice are carried out, (2) highlight who is and is not served and benefitted by VIO research and practice, and (3) question the underlying values and ideological assumptions of existing VIO research and practice. We call for greater critical consciousness among VIO psychologists in order to ensure the relevance and benefit of our research and practice for all workers around the globe.

A Contribution to Critique of ‘Global Crisis Situation’: Critical Dialogue Between Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and Iranian Marxist Tradition

In this article, based on mutual appropriation of concepts from cultural-historical activity theory (especially Andy Blunden’s works) and Iranian Marxist tradition (especially Kamal Khosravi’s ideas), I have elaborated two crises which, we believe, are main characteristics of our historical stage and other crises are manifestations of them: (a) crisis of historical perspective on human self-emancipation and (b) crisis of theory in emancipatory social science. Crisis of historical perspective indicates lack of integrated worldview and concept about emancipated future, while crisis of theory addresses the fundamental problem of theoretical categories in expressing relations between elements and factors of reality. Categories of mode of existence (Marx, Khosravi) and mode of collaboration (Blunden) are proposed in order to solve these crises. Based on the mutual appropriation of mode of existence and mode of collaboration, I have tried to formulate three modes of existence of projects (class-project, project, and life-project) which can explain the totality of a social reality. These crises and proposed categories have been elaborated in this article, in critical dialogue with some theoretical frameworks like feminist account of intersectionality and German-Scandinavian Critical Psychology’s main concept: conduct of everyday life.

Crítica de la psicología, trabajo y la pandemia de Covid-19

Ante la pandemia de Covid-19 causada por el vírus SARS-CoV-2 que puso a los trabajadores de la región lationamericana en una condición de mayor vulnerabildad, en este artículo se consideran algunas de las respuestas proporcionadas por la psicología convencional de corte industrial-organizacional, las cuales han estado caracterizadas por su enfasis técnico y acrítico dirigido a responsabilizar a los trabajadores de la actual situación. Tambien son analizadas las propuestas construidas por la psicología crítica descritas como soluciones colectivas que convocan instancias Estatales, organizacionales, sindicales y gremiales para diseñar intervencinoes que contribuyan a mitigar la situacion de mayor vulnerabilidad laboral. Por último, son consideradas las respuestas derivadas de perspectivas externas a la psicologia que examinan criticamente esta disciplina para mostrar las operaciones de gobierno que son posibles gracias a las intervenciones psicológicas referidas a la contencion de la pandemia. Se señala que la llamada crisis de la crítica estaría permeándose tanto en aquellas psicologías que asumen perspectivas no hegemónicas, como en la crítica misma de la psicología cuando consideran la situación actual.

Through the eyes of an academic library: understanding the significance of the strategic planning process

Strategic planning in academic libraries can help libraries develop and grow as an organization. The planning process can also be an opportunity to communicate the value of the library to the institution. This column reviews recent writings about strategic planning in academic libraries. Some publications present traditional techniques and strategies that focus on process and assessment, but tell unique stories based on experience. Other publications introduce new techniques for examining the value of an academic library, including using Critical Management Studies, prototyping, and organizational psychology.

Phänomenologische Anthropologie und Psychologie im Werk Javier San Martins

The relationship between phenomenology and the sciences is of complex nature. In particular, the transcendental phenomenological position seems to promote skeptical reservations about the scientific attitude. Phenomenological anthropology and psychology, however, are an exception. The work of the Spanish philosopher Javier San Martin addresses the relationship of Husserlian phenomenology to these two particular sciences. In this paper, the work of Navarrese will be revisited as an occasion to reflect on the relationship between phenomenology and the sciences. In the first part, San Martin’s philosophical approach is presented and put in relation to its counterpart, namely ratiovitalism, which has dominated phenomenological research in the Spanish-speaking world throughout the last decades. The second part is devoted to the question of whether phenomenological transcendentalism is compatible with anthropological research. It also describes San Martin’s contribution to cultural philosophy. The relationship between phenomenology and psychology is discussed in the third part. San Martin develops a critical account of empiricist psychology which he confronts with his proposal for a ’posttranscendental’ psychology that is based on the critique of psychologism and representationalism. The last section compares San Martin’s idea of anthropological and psychological science with other forms of scientific theory which contribute to phenomenological methodology in empirical research.

Critical health psychologists' call to recognition and action: Critical health psychology, participatory action research and the situation in Turkey

Critical health psychologists' call to recognition and action: Critical health psychology, participatory action research and the situation in Turkey

Leisure and youth clubs’ work with young people of ethnic minority background living in socially deprived housing areas: creating processes of hope and empowerment through social pedagogical work

This article gives an analysis of social pedagogical work in leisure and youth clubs, physically located in so-called socially deprived housing areas in Denmark. The pedagogical work is especially aimed at young boys of ethnic minority background. The article draws on empirical research from a project exploring leisure and youth clubs’ impact on children and young people’s well-being and opportunities for development when growing up in socially deprived housing areas. The social pedagogical work seems very closely related to societal issues moving into the pedagogical everyday life of the leisure and youth clubs. These clubs, besides embracing the children and young people’s active leisure life in communities with other children and young people, are thus also instrumental in helping and supporting the children and young people to cope with an everyday life that features experiences of stigmatising and inequality-shaped living conditions. The social pedagogical work is analysed from the perspectives of the pedagogues and young people, taking their point of view to what seems particularly significant to the well-being and development of the young people based on Scandinavian-German critical psychology. This is integrated with Paulo Freire’s notion of hope and empowerment, which is the analytical framework within the context of social pedagogical work concerned with how the young men develop belief in themselves for them to complete their education, get a job in after-school hours and refrain from involvement in crime and gang-related communities.

От межпсихологического к внутрипсихологическому: развивая субъектность у школьников

This paper starts from the contradictions that permeate the Latin American democratic context to dis¬cuss how psychology can contribute to expanding students' agency in public schools located in vulnerable contexts marked by poverty and social exclusion. The contributions of Cultural-Historical Psychology and German Critical Psychology are articulated to substantiate the importance of building participatory spaces for human development. The authors were inserted in a public school from the year 2015 to the year 2017, holding class assemblies with primary school students. The content discussed in these meetings was re¬corded in field diaries, from which three narratives were selected for analysis. The first narrative deals with a discussion of physical education activities; the second presents a student sharing his suffering in the face of bullying as he cries in class; the third reports a discussion about the theft of a pencil. It is concluded that guided by critical perspective, psychology can contribute to the strengthening of subjects, collaborating to the expansion of their agency.

Adorno's negative psychology

AbstractFollowing the Second World War, Adorno et al.’s The Authoritarian Personality (1950/2019) became the most influential engagement between Frankfurt School critical theorists and the field of psychology. The recent publication of Adorno's retracted “Remarks on The Authoritarian Personality” (2019) provides a timely impetus to reexamine and challenge certain long‐held ideas about Adorno's contribution to psychology—for instance that The Authoritarian Personality reduces complex social phenomena to individual motivation and personality. Adorno's Remarks provide an alternative approach to the usual reading of The Authoritarian Personality, where the psychology of authoritarianism points to a contradiction at the very core of the concept of psychology, aligning the study with Adorno's more critical and dialectical works. In this article, I challenge how Adorno and The Authoritarian Personality are commonly taken up in critical psychology and introduce “negative psychology” as Adorno's central contribution to the field modeled in his reading of psychoanalysis and his theory of negative dialectics. Reframed in this way, Adorno can continue to serve as a crucial site of critical engagement for psychologists.

Book Review: Postfeminism and health: Critical psychology and media perspectives by Sarah Riley, Adrienne Evans and Martine Robson

Book Review: <i>Postfeminism and health: Critical psychology and media perspectives</i> by Sarah Riley, Adrienne Evans and Martine Robson

Considering love: Implications for critical political psychology

Within psychology, love is typically understood in fundamentally psychological terms. Even those critical psychologists who have interrogated the sociopolitical dimensions of love seem unable to break from conceptions of love as romantic, familial, and/or private. In this article, I argue that in understanding love as a disposition, rather than a feeling, political psychologists are able to bring nuance to mainstream psychology's engagement with the emancipatory potentialities of love while, simultaneously, instating a critical reorientation of political psychology. To this end, I offer two pathways through which political psychologists can work with love: rooting counter-hegemonies in the love ethic, and enunciating love knowledges across contexts. I conclude by reflecting on future directions for critical political psychologists who are concerned with a multifaceted, materialist, psychopolitical and contextually-bound notion of love.

¿Por qué necesitamos una Psicología Crítica en el Deporte?

La psicología del deporte posee una tradición marcada por la perspectiva cognitiva conductual de la disciplina que ha sido considerada como la versión hegemónica en el campo. Sin embargo, en los últimos años se han hecho visibles varias propuestas que han logrado posicionarse como versiones válidas para trabajar desde la psicología en el amplio campo deportivo. Estas versiones, a su vez, han generado nuevos temas de investigación para resolver diferentes problemas que habían sido invisibilizados por la Psicología Tradicional del Deporte. Con el objetivo de difundir entre las redes latinoamericanas, caribeñas e iberoamericanas la existencia de diferentes perspectivas en el campo de la psicología del deporte, este número especial incluye diez artículos, 5 de ellos en español, 3 en portugués y 2 en inglés, que colaboran con el avance y la amplitud teórica en el campo.

Promoting equity by illuminating academic roles and identities in teaching students from diverse backgrounds

ABSTRACT While university participation has widened, retention and success rates remain lower for some diverse Australian undergraduate cohorts, e.g. students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, Indigenous students and students with disability. Institutional characteristics and culture are more important factors in attrition than student characteristics. This paper explores how universities could develop learning and teaching communities that are more inclusive through insights into some complex relationships between student diversity, academic roles and identities. Using a critical discursive psychology approach, we identified 12 different subject positions that Australian academics from 19 universities adopted in constructing their identities as teachers of students from diverse backgrounds. We critically discuss illustrative findings from one academic who adopted seven different subject positions to explore the impact of institutional context on social positioning and dynamics related to learning, teaching and student diversity. We conclude that a ‘students-as-partners’ approach could help universities to better recognise and value diversity.

Psicología y crítica: extraños compañeros de cama. Lo que podemos aprender de la crítica de Ayn Rand a la psicologización

¿Cómo conectar la psicología con el pensamiento crítico? En este ensayo lohago por introducir dos términos más. Los dos términos ambos refieren precisamente a la crítica de la psicología misma. El primero es la crítica de la psicología desde el psicoanálisis y el segundo es la crítica de la psicología desde una agenda derechista y conservadora. Partiendo de este último, involucro a la obra de Ayn Rand (1905-1982), novelista y filósofa de culto, cuya obra es uno de los elogios más radicales sobre el capitalismo. Rand ha formulado una crítica muy aguda de la psicología y la psicologización, pero, argumentaré que Ayn Rand al fin y cabo recae en la psicología y la psicologización. Ya que los eruditos de Silicon Valley se inspiran en Ayn Rand y su filosofía/psicología objetivista, la digitalización de la subjectividad nos presenta conun caso ejemplar para escudriñar como los modelos y teorías de la psicología son parte integrante de la columna vertebral del capitalismo digital de hoy. Desde aquí es claro que para que una crítica de la psicología desde el psicoanálisis sea una crítica que evite recaer en la psicología y la psicologización, tiene que ser una crítica política, una crítica comprometida y partisano.