Traditional
Psychology has the strong tendency to research things that
are not really important to the realities and needs of most
people.
Mainstream
Psychology lacks a notion of society, society as a concept
that is more than the sum of its parts. In the end a social
psychology that is really a group psychology is the best
one can expect.
Critical
Psychology wants to question the self-understanding of established
Psychology. It questions the "object of research",
its construction, its contexts, the contexts of research
as such, its implicitness and consequences.
There
is not only one Critical Psychology. The common denominator
of all critical tendencies in the field of psychology can
be summoned as done above.
If
one comes to detail, many different "schools"
arise, e.g. marxist psychology, feminist psychology, postmodern
psychology, critical psychoanalysis, constructivist approaches,
postcolonial approaches and the more.
One
thing that all of them share, is that they question the
legitimacy of mainstream psychology. They do not simply
accept its findings, but often reject them as results of
a science of control and dominance.
What
does that mean? The notion "science of control and
dominance" refers to the fact that - if mainstream
psychology does not reflect its role in society and the
functioning of society - it will serve the actual powers.
It will deliver them theories, models, and results that
are not proved on their implications, conditions, and usability.
This means that no question is asked like e.g.: why is this
research important?, for whom it is important?, to whom
it is useful?, for what will serve?, who gives the assignment
and why?, in which contexts of power this research takes
place? and so on.
A
famous example is applied psychological research in war
technology, soldier assessment and selsction etc. But also
in the field of economy, mass media, and advertising the
focus is not on the well-being of the people, but on their
exploitability and usability. This kind of psychology functions
under the banner of manipulation.
The
aim of critical psychology is to analyse - and if possible
to change - the conditions in which humans are - spoken
with Marx - "downtrodden beings". The main question
is why humans perpetuate a world in which people dominate
other people, oppress them, exploit them, humiliate them,
and kill them, instead of realising their potentials and
create a real "paradise".
Critical
psychology's focus is on the people, its sufferings, its
longings, its wishes, its life concepts. It is about freedom,
emancipation, empowerment, and not about the ongoing of
a history of injustice.
With
this background the theses on psychology should be understandable.
