Carl Ratner - Psychology’s Contribution to Socio-Cultural, Political, and Individual Emancipation

This series offers titles that challenge the dominant models of psychological science and their applications in order to foster social transformation toward equity and justice. With this common aim, various forms of critical and liberation psychology have emerged over the last few decades, drawing on neo-Marxism, poststructuralism, critical hermeneutics, feminist psychoanalysis, queer studies, and postcolonial thought. Critiques grounded in these perspectives reveal the ideological functions of mainstream theories and the therapeutic, organizational, and educational practices that flow from them. Titles in this series explore these links between theory and practice and argue for progressive alternatives. Critical Theory and Practice in Psychology and the Human Sciences publishes bold and innovative monographs that advance critical psychology and propose socially transformative practices. The series welcomes submissions from a range of theoretical perspectives and disciplinary orientations, including clinical psychology and counseling, social work, community psychology, organizational development, and activism.

More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14941

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This book seeks to make the discipline of Psychologywhich includes academic Psychology, psychotherapy, educational psychology, special needs psychologyrelevant to understanding and correcting urgent social and psychological problems of our era. I seek to make this understanding and practice (i.e., praxis ) integral, or built into, Psychology. In other words, Psychology contains the tools for this praxis within its theories, methodologies, and interventions. Psychological theories, methodologies, and interventions are emancipatory. Social-psychological improvement then informs psychological workpsychological theory, methodology, interventions. Understanding and practicing social-psychological improvement will be performed in the course of doing Psychology.

Transforming Psychology requires reclaiming and reformulating its theories, methodologies, and interventions. Transforming the science of Psychology requires transforming its understanding of psychology. Psychological phenomena are reconceptualized as cultural phenomena.

An emancipatory Psychology is a cultural Psychology that researches cultural-psychological phenomena. This makes psychological phenomena into windows into culture/society. Psychological phenomena are formed in macro cultural factors by cultural processes which impart a cultural form to psychology. Formulated in this way by scientific, cultural Psychology, psychological phenomena reflect and reveal culture; they critique culture; and they call for improving culture.

Emancipation becomes a component of psychological phenomena and scientific Psychology. Psychological science, psychological phenomena, and emancipation are integrated into a triple helix.

This will correct Psychologys historic errors of (a) ignoring social issues and (b) psychologizing social issues by reducing them to abstract, psychological principles. These complementary errors have stunted Psychologys scientific potential as well as its sociopolitical potential for improving social life and psychological functioning.

Explaining the vast extent of this reclaiming and reformulating of Psychologys elements shall occupy the first half of this book. The second half shall utilize refurbished Psychology to prove its mettle by analyzing and improving social movements that aim at social and psychological emancipation. This is one way that a refurbished Psychology can make important and distinctive contributions to social, political, and psychological enrichment.