Barriers and Proposals for a Radical Psychological Practice

Reference: Manzano-Arrondo, V. (2015). Barreras y propuestas para una práctica psicológica radical. Teoría y Crítica de la Psicología 5, 40–56.

Abstract: Psychological science has been built from positivist bases. One effect has been the wide gap between the development of psychology and the structural problems of society. Thus, the academy has worked following its own interest or the interest of the power groups that make up the hegemonic references. Therefore, psychology rarely faces the structural causes of individual psychological problems. This shortfall is added to another, in the practice of the profession. The Academy does not usually address the everyday problems that arise in practice. Thus, practitioners of
psychology drag the problems of a one-eyed science, and are forced to work with the individual consequences of global injustice, without good guides. This paper aims to provide some guidelines for professional work that addresses the structural causes, from a psychological perspective. From analysis of called “economic crisis”, this proposal raises four conceptual leaps (focus on the guilty; go beyond individuals; address the structural dynamics; denounce) and three levels of action (working with individuals; psychological activism; building of psychological organizations which promote liberation).

Keywords: Radical psychology, Liberation psychology, Profession of psychology, Activism.

Full text: https://cespyd.es/a/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Barreras_y_propuestas-1.pdf