The Basis of Critical Psychology

The essence of critical psychology is that it is fundamentally different from traditional psychology. I will contrast the values, assumptions, concerns and objectives with that of critical psychology which emphasize social justice and human welfare. In essence, traditional psychological practices and norms in the perspective of critical psychology hinder social justice, to the determent of individuals and communities particularly the disadvantaged individuals and oppressed in a society.

In this essay I will identify controversial issues in psychology in several ways. As well, this article will highlight why this controversy arises and predominantly due to its value laden approach contrast to so called values free approach to psychology my mainstream psychology practices and norms. This article will also show the traditional psychology is also inherently values laden even though the traditional psychologist claim their psychological practices and norms are value free.

In reality psychology cannot be a neutral endeavor conducted by scientist and practitioners because they cannot detach themselves from social and political circumstances.  Basically, psychology is a human and social endeavor. They are in practice influenced by differing interests and complex power dynamics. As well the traditional psychologist mainly ignore or indifferent regarding the impact of their practices on moral, social and political implications. There fore, this article highlights to critically think about these implications as one make their way in the disciple of psychology.

History of Psychology

Mostly the historical account, in the perspective of critical historians is not neutral. For example historians choose which events to recount and select competing interpretations.

In this process they make subjective choices about what is significant and what is not. This affects how people view the present as well as the past. In the perspective of critical psychologists this is also true to the history of psychology. In reality, the psychology is affected by political interest and political ideology in its evolution. This is the critical factor the mainstream psychologists ignore and they consider their psychology is scientific and value free. However, like history psychology’s evolution is affected by political interests and power dynamics. This is the departing point for the critical psychologists from that of mainstream psychologists. In effect, in the perspective of critical psychologist psychology is not value free and power dynamics affect psychology and its application has considerable negative effects for individuals and some vulnerable groups in society and perpetuate the myths, beliefs and other norms and there fore it maintains the status quo of dominant groups in society.