The Discursive Format of “Social Warming”

This chapter deals with human relationships that currently come up against increasingly overheated communication. Combining the perspective of social representations with that of discursive acts, Giuseppe Mininni relaunches his diatextual approach, placing social psychology at the meeting point between the epistemological axes of cultural, discursive, and critical psychology. Studies on mixed families illustrate the issue. Mixed families seem fundamentally diatextual because their texts are embedded within enunciative contexts animated by multifarious dynamics of perennial change. The author’s analysis shows that these families activate three kinds of social-epistemic rhetoric, focusing on distinction, mediation, and integration. The interplay between the Self and the Other is thus explained, acknowledging the vital impulse toward hybridization. The hyphenated identities produced in mixed families show the Self that the best way to save its own identity may be by strewing it in the Other’s, in an ongoing process of change.

Existential Functions of Mentalization in Asian Civilizations

The construct “mentalization” in our Western psychological knowledge and more specifically in clinical work appeared several decades ago. The focus of the Western understanding and research of the construct and of mentalization-based therapy is put on the psychopathological dimensions of the process of mentalization. This article presents a brief analysis of the existential functions of mentalization in the thousand of years old Asian philosophical-psychological systems in an attempt to highlight some important implications for our Western views. The analysis is based on the paradigm of critical psychology as a concretization of the principles of Immanuel Kant‘s critical philosophy in the field of psychological knowledge.

Critical psychology and brain: Rethinking free will in the legal context

The article draws from critical psychology to discuss the rising debate on brain determinism and free will in the legal domain. As free will also corresponds to the context and culture, it can have both the public and private space of expressions. The rise of neuroscience and its influence in the legal domain offers a holistic and sociocultural meaning of responsibility. Even one becomes entitled to take free will as a ‘necessary illusion’ in order to be in the zone of ‘moral as well as legal-social life forming activities’. In the criminal justice system free will is not taken as any kind of necessary illusion but the conscious will and action of the person. This further throw light on how self-regulation directs oneself to the wilful control of illegitimate acts and the role of brain.

Queering Kritische Psychologie

This paper aims at connecting the Berlin school of Critical psychology with queer feminist theories by focusing on the concept of condition-meaning-reason (Bedingungs-Bedeutungs-Begründungsanalyse, BBBA). To this end, we will first discuss basic aspects of the BBBA concept, which forms an important analytical tool of German Critical psychology. Second, we will present possible connecting lines to queer feminist approaches. In so doing, we will argue that the concept of conditions offers links to feminist theories of New Materialism and (Neo)Marxist Critique. The concept of meaning contains parallels to the Foucauldian concept of discourse, which is central to Butler’s theories of performativity and various subsequent queer feminist schools of thought. In turn, the concept of reason provides an opportunity to understand why subjects who live in similar material conditions and social constellations of meaning act differently. The fictional example of single mothers serves to illustrate the facets of the BBBA concept and the condition/meaning/reason analysis. In this way, we want to emphasise the potential of Critical psychology for queer feminist approaches and break new ground methodologically by integrating the previously divergent insights of Marxist, poststructuralist and psychosocial critiques.

Cracking The Code: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Canadian Code Of Ethics For Psychologists

Hailed as “possibly the best psychologists’ code of ethics anywhere in the world” (Hadjistavropoulos, 2009, p. 4), the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists represents a powerful ethical and professional standard for practitioners of psychology. This ethical code boasts a strong theoretical and empirical basis, prediction and consistency, high educational value and relevance, and an empowering advantage for its users – psychologists. Yet, critical and feminist examinations of the CPA Code have identified problems with the Code, including its underlying structure and values, lack of regard for social justice, and ignorance of human subjectivity. These scholars’ critiques expose the problematic ideology of the CPA Code, throwing into question the ethical implications of this ethical code. Joining this broader project of critical psychology examining the undercurrents and effects of power in the discipline, this dissertation seeks to understand how the CPA Code produces ethical-professional practices and subjectivities. Framing this research within discourse, power, and governmentality or “the conduct of conduct,” I draw on the work of Michel Foucault and Foucauldian-informed psychologists to interrogate the ways in which the “ethical” practitioner is produced by the CPA Code. Further interested to explore the ethical-professional constructions of individuals and groups of people historically marginalized in Canadian society, I also analyze the CPA Code’s supplementary documents Guidelines for Ethical Psychological Practice with Women (CPA, 2007) and the Guidelines for Non-discriminatory Practice (CPA, 2001). This discourse analysis discovers the many dominant and appropriated discourses of the CPA Code, subject positions, as well as the discursive rules reinforcing the discourse practices and subjects. Dominant discourses constructing the CPA Code are science, objectivity, competence, expertise, legal, managerialism, and risk management discourses. Appropriated discourses are critical inquiry, betterment of society, and morality discourses. Sites where discursive rules are reproduced are education and training, licensure and regulation, ethical decision-making, consultation, and misconduct adjudication. Subjectivities of psychologists and clients are discussed. These findings are contextualized within Foucauldian theory and the broader critical psychology literature.

Subjectivity or?

The aim of the paper is to give a brief presentation of an approach to developing the conception of subjectivity in psychology. This conception is developed on the background of the science of the subject of critical psychology as founded by Holzkamp (1983) which considers subjectivity as a core concept in human psychology. In the conception presented in this paper, it is argued that human subjectivity must be grasped as grounded in a subject’s ongoing situated participation and conduct of everyday life in and across various, structurally arranged social practices. It is argued why such a conception of subjectivity is necessary and its main concepts are briefly presented. A critical identification of methodological and conceptual inadequacies in narrower notions of the psyche and subjectivity paves the way for the line of arguments leading to this broader conception of subjectivity.

Cracking The Code: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Canadian Code Of Ethics For Psychologists

Hailed as “possibly the best psychologists’ code of ethics anywhere in the world” (Hadjistavropoulos, 2009, p. 4), the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists represents a powerful ethical and professional standard for practitioners of psychology. This ethical code boasts a strong theoretical and empirical basis, prediction and consistency, high educational value and relevance, and an empowering advantage for its users – psychologists. Yet, critical and feminist examinations of the CPA Code have identified problems with the Code, including its underlying structure and values, lack of regard for social justice, and ignorance of human subjectivity. These scholars’ critiques expose the problematic ideology of the CPA Code, throwing into question the ethical implications of this ethical code. Joining this broader project of critical psychology examining the undercurrents and effects of power in the discipline, this dissertation seeks to understand how the CPA Code produces ethical-professional practices and subjectivities. Framing this research within discourse, power, and governmentality or “the conduct of conduct,” I draw on the work of Michel Foucault and Foucauldian-informed psychologists to interrogate the ways in which the “ethical” practitioner is produced by the CPA Code. Further interested to explore the ethical-professional constructions of individuals and groups of people historically marginalized in Canadian society, I also analyze the CPA Code’s supplementary documents Guidelines for Ethical Psychological Practice with Women (CPA, 2007) and the Guidelines for Non-discriminatory Practice (CPA, 2001). This discourse analysis discovers the many dominant and appropriated discourses of the CPA Code, subject positions, as well as the discursive rules reinforcing the discourse practices and subjects. Dominant discourses constructing the CPA Code are science, objectivity, competence, expertise, legal, managerialism, and risk management discourses. Appropriated discourses are critical inquiry, betterment of society, and morality discourses. Sites where discursive rules are reproduced are education and training, licensure and regulation, ethical decision-making, consultation, and misconduct adjudication. Subjectivities of psychologists and clients are discussed. These findings are contextualized within Foucauldian theory and the broader critical psychology literature.