DOING PSYCHOLOGY CRITICALLY:

MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN DIVERSE SETTINGS.

Isaac Prilleltensky

Victoria University, Australia

Geoff Nelson

Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

Brief Overview of the Book

This book is about the implementation of critical psychology concepts in action. We felt the need to write a book that would articulate the practical implications of critical psychology. Critical psychology is not a special field but rather an approach to the entire field of psychology. This approach attends to the pervasive influence of power in all we do as psychologists; in our roles as therapists, researchers, writers, community consultants, evaluators, teachers, reviewers, supervisors and program developers. Power frames not only how we treat each other, but also the very subject matter of our study; how we understand psychology, how we create the theories we do, how we endorse existing practices and how we accept the status quo. Foucault said that Atruth isn=t outside power@ (1984, p. 72). To that we add that psychology isn=t outside power, and that professional practice isn=t outside power either. Power serves particular interests. As psychologists we serve interests; our interests, our clients= interests, and a series of other interests of which we are not even aware, including the desires of those invested in keeping society the way it is, with all its inequalities. Unless we understand how power pervades all we do, and become conscious of the interests we serve, we risk terrible ignorance. But this is only the first step. The next step is how to transform that awareness into practices that promote wellness and liberation and that help community members to resist oppression. Although critical psychology is a relatively young approach, very useful material has been written on how power becomes part of our daily discourse, and how we may inadvertently perpetuate injustice. Not a lot has been written though on how to practice from a critical psychology perspective. Here lies our potential contribution.

We want to offer suggestions for training and working in diverse settings using a critical psychology approach. Part I introduces foundational concepts in critical psychology. Part II deals with training in teaching, research, and applied work. Part III is where we articulate the implications of critical psychology for practicing in clinical, counseling, school, health, community, and work settings. The last part of the book discusses ways of integrating critical psychology across settings and across different spheres of life.

A main thrust throughout the volume is that we need to cross settings and mind-sets to advance the goals of critical psychology. Challenges in life derive from interactions of processes occurring simultaneously in different places and at different levels of analysis. Thus, we adopt a systemic approach that encourages psychologists to consider points of insertion in an array of settings and modalities. Finding ways of collaborating with people in other disciplines, as well as means of integrating diverse helping forms is paramount. Equally important is the ability to view problems from multiple perspectives that defy compression of people=s struggles to either intrapsychic or social factors. Ussher (1991) and Sedgwick (1982), among others, demonstrated the disastrous effects of reducing the plight of women and people with psychiatric problems to either labeling, biology, gender, inner conflicts, material or cultural determinants. Single factor explanations simplify the human experience and are often an insult to those who suffer from diverse and converging problems that may include labeling, biology, gender, inner conflicts, material, cultural determinants and others.

We tried to convey our ideas in an accessible style. We use pedagogical frameworks that illustrate and summarize the main points of the discussion in the various chapters. We hope that you will find the book stimulating and engaging. Most of all, we hope you will gain some ideas on how to do psychology critically.

PART I

FOUNDATIONS

PART I

FOUNDATIONS

Critical psychologists share an interest in how power permeates professional discourse and action. Moreover, they have in common a commitment to reduce and eliminate oppression in society. But the focus of their attention, as well as their methodologies, vary a great deal. Some are engaged in discourse analysis, some in therapy, others in community work. Some critical psychologists use exclusively qualitative methods of research, while others incorporate quantitative designs as well. We also differ in our traditions, with some being heavily influenced by Latin American Liberation Psychology and others by the work of Foucault and German Critical Psychologists like Holzkamp. In this part of the book we try to reflect diverse tendencies, but we cannot, nor do we want, to escape our own interpretation and use of critical psychology. We bring to this book our insights as well as our limitations.

As will be clear throughout the book, our orientation is informed primarily by the work of critical and community psychologists in several countries, as well as by our experiences working in diverse settings and living in several continents. We have a need to communicate with people across settings and cultures. Therefore, the two of us share an appreciation for clarity. There is a great deal of confusion in the language that psychologists of various persuasions use. Countless denominations within modern and postmodern psychology have questioned and multiplied the meaning of words like knowledge, values, and practice. In Part I of the book we explain our own position with respect to foundational concepts in critical psychology. This is not to imply that our position represents the foundations of critical psychology, but rather that these concepts express our foundations in critical psychology.

Chapter 1 deals with the main pillar of our conceptual orientation: power. We offer an extensive definition of power that situates the individual as potential victim and abuser of it. In chapter 2 we discuss how power is an essential ingredient in both the attainment of wellness and the enactment of oppression. Liberation refers to the positive culmination of a process of resistance. Although complete liberation is an idealized state, we believe that partial liberations are possible and worth striving for. In this chapter we evaluate, for instance, the implicit values and assumptions of theories of personality and of Aabnormal behavior.@ Similarly, we explore the assumptions inherent in psychological research and how they may lead to oppressive outcomes. We also discuss the experience of people who received treatment for severe psychological problems.

Chapter 3 organizes the domain of psychology into an analytical framework consisting of values, assumptions and practices. We ask what values would lead to the attainment of wellness and the reduction of oppression, and we evaluate how mainstream and critical psychology engage with them. We repeat this process with respect to key assumptions regarding knowledge and ethics, and with central practices dealing with problem definition and intervention methods. This tripartite framework of values, assumptions and practices informs the critique of mainstream practices and the construction of alternatives throughout the book. As a whole, the three chapters provide a set of tools for analyzing existing practices and for offering alternatives that are sensitive to the role of power in wellness, oppression, liberation and resistance.