Psicología crítica y lucha social: pasado, presente, futuro / Critical psychology and social struggle: past, present and future

El presente artículo examina las estrechas relaciones entre la psicología crítica y el mundo moderno en el que se ha desarrollado. Tras proponerse, justificarse y discutirse una definición de la psicología crítica, se ofrece una recapitulación de su historia en el último siglo, un diagnóstico de su estado actual y un pronóstico acerca de su porvenir. Las diversas opciones de psicología crítica se conciben como distintas manifestaciones de luchas sociales que se oponen al orden servido por las psicologías dominantes.

This article examines the close relationships between critical psychology and the modern world in which it has developed. After proposing, justifying and discussing a definition of critical psychology, a recap of its history in the last century, a diagnosis of its current state and a prognosis about its future are offered. The various options of critical psychology are conceived as different manifestations of social struggles that oppose the order served by the dominant psychologies.

The advance of poststructuralism and its influence on family therapy.

Postmodernism began to influence family therapy very early in the 1980s with articles referencing postmodern ideas, focusing on meaning and multiplicity. With the appearance of narrative therapy on the scene in the 1990s there was a shift toward poststructural thinking, which refined the movement and politicized the clinical work. Even with a bit of a backlash, whether because this was a new idea or it somehow threatened a positivistic culture, a poststructural view has continued to have effects on family therapy. This article explores the variety of influences: the expansion of narrative ideas, the innovation of Madsen's collaborative helping, and also more nuanced effects. I argue that a poststructural view has effectively changed how many family therapists think and may also be subtly influencing how they might work.

Feminism and psychology: critiques of methods and epistemology.

Starting in the 1960s, many of the critiques of psychological science offered by feminist psychologists focused on its methods and epistemology. This article evaluates the current state of psychological science in relation to this feminist critique. The analysis relies on sources that include the PsycINFO database, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (American Psychological Association, 2010), and popular psychology methods textbooks. After situating the feminist critique within the late-20th-century shift of science from positivism to postpositivism, the inquiry examines feminists' claims of androcentric bias in (a) the underrepresentation of women as researchers and research participants and (b) researchers' practices in comparing women and men and describing their research findings. In most of these matters, psychology manifests considerable change in directions advocated by feminists. However, change is less apparent in relation to some feminists' criticisms of psychology's reliance on laboratory experimentation and quantitative methods. In fact, the analyses documented the rarity in high-citation journals of qualitative research that does not include quantification. Finally, the analysis frames feminist methodological critiques by a consideration of feminist epistemologies that challenge psychology's dominant postpositivism. Scrutiny of methods textbooks and journal content suggests that within psychological science, especially as practiced in the United States, these alternative epistemologies have not yet gained substantial influence.

Appreciating difference: Roy Schafer on psychoanalysis and women.

The author describes and appreciates Roy Schafer's critique of Freud's view of female psychology and his other contributions to the psychoanalytic literature on women, noting his then-novel emphasis that took into account social and cultural factors in analytic treatment. She relates the influence on Schafer's work of his ambiance in that era: the Yale University Student Health Services during the social turmoil of the 1970s (where she was his supervisee), with the university becoming coed, as well as the theoretical plurality even in the early days of the Western New England Psychoanalytic Institute.

Function(s) of religion in the contemporary world: psychoanalytic perspectives : about new types of religious conversions.

With respect to our psychoanalytic frame of reference allowing us to study the extent of the hypotheses concerning the religious phenomenon as formulated by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, in the context of a cross approach between the accuracy of the concept of conversion and of psychic mechanisms or phenomena at stake within conversions, and based on the testimonials of subjects acknowledging themselves in the experiment of conversion, we try to understand if and how religion is anchored in our cultural era through subversive effects it may have on the subject.

Algumas observações oriundas da leitura de O estrangeiro de Albert Camus / Algunas observaciones originarias de la lectura de El extranjero de Albert Camus / Some observations from reading Albert Camus’ The stranger

A obra literária de Albert Camus O estrangeiro apresenta um personagem cujo comportamento leva a pensar em quadros clínicos cada vez mais frequentes no mundo atual. São as chamadas patologias do vazio, as quais se caracterizam pela incapacidade de pensar e de dar às diversas experiências da vida um significado emocional mais genuíno

Albert Camus’ literary work The stranger presents a character whose behavior reminds us of clinical cases which are increasingly frequent nowadays. Those are the so-called pathologies of emptiness, which typically show an inability to think and to assign real emotional meaning to the very experiences of life

La obra literaria de Albert Camus, El extranjero presenta un personaje cuyo comportamiento lleva a pensar en cuadros clínicos cada vez más frecuentes en el mundo actual. Son las dichas patologías del vacío, que se caracterizan por la incapacidad de pensar y de dar a las diversas experiencias de la vida un significado emocional más genuino

Comparing premodern melancholy/mania and modern trauma: an argument in favor of historical experiences of trauma.

Historians and psychiatrists have repeatedly looked to both real and imagined individuals of the past, like Achilles and Samuel Pepys, and found evidence that they were suffering from symptoms of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder. The assumptions that allow such historical "diagnoses" have, however, recently been called into question by philosophers such as lan Hacking, anthropologists like Allan Young and psychiatrists such as Patrick Bracken. These scholars have all suggested in various ways that experiences of trauma could not have occurred until the diagnosis of trauma and its symptoms had been formalized and the language of trauma had been developed in the late 19th century. This article attempts to resolve this bifurcation of opinion on the universality of the mind and historical experiences of trauma in two ways. First, it argues for the necessity of applying modern categories of analysis to further present understandings of the past. Second, it considers discussions of"melancholia" and "mania" in premodern medical literature and argues that there are enough similarities between the causes and symptoms of these premodern disorders and modern trauma to suggest that experiences of trauma may not be wholly culturally bound to the modern world, as the above scholars have suggested. While melancholy or mania cannot simply be understood as premodern names for trauma, and it is not always correct to "diagnose" a premodern person who exhibits symptoms of these illnesses with trauma, such an assumption is not always ahistorical or incorrect either.

Prazer, gozo e realidade no mundo contemporâneo / Placer, goce y realidad en el mundo contemporáneo / Pleasure, indulgence and reality in the contemporary world

O autor aborda as diferenças existentes entre a realidade imperante na época freudiana e na época atual. Na modernidade, a realidade estava caracterizada por uma ordem repressiva que, embora favorecesse o surgimento da doença neurótica, permitia a rebeldia e o questionamento criativo. Na pós-modernidade, a defecção estrutural da figura do Pai e o colapso ético inerente ao enfraquecimento da legalidade geram uma realidade cultural que propicia as políticas de gozo - adições, transtornos alimentares e condutas transgressivas. Diante da não imposição do limite subjetivante e da não transmissão de valores éticos, o sujeito tende a naufragar numa pulsionalidade acéfala e num hedonismo egocêntrico que desconhece a alteridade. A contradição instala-se, então, entre o gozo auto-erótico e o princípio do prazer, de modo que a tarefa analítica consiste em delimitar o gozo para que o sujeito possa transcender seu universo narcisístico-pulsional e ter acesso, assim, ao plano sublimatório, caracterizado pelos prazeres discursivos. O autor insiste na necessidade de que os analistas sustentem uma prática clínica baseada na ética da diferença, já que o imaginário social busca desmentir das diferenças sexuais e geracionais. Com essa finalidade, mostra como se tende a abolir - inclusive por certas correntes analíticas - as categorias diagnósticas de saúde e doença psíquica; a validar o impreciso conceito de gênero; a exaltar as posições narcisísticas e a legitimar - como meros estilos existenciais - condições patológicas como o transexualismo e as perversões. Finaliza o artigo fazendo algumas considerações sobre a prática clínica atual que deve ser inscrita num horizonte de legalidade simbólica e deve estar destinada a delimitar, sem concessões, os gozos sem alteridade, para acessar criativamente o campo do princípio do prazer com a ética desiderativa que lhe é inerente.

The author approaches the existing differences between the reality in the the Freudian and current times. In the Modem Age, reality was characterized by a repressive order that, although favored the appearance of neurotic disease, allowed the rebellion and the creative questioning. In post-modernity the structural defection of the father figure and the inherent ethical collapse to the weakening of legality generate a cultural reality that provides the policies of indulgence addictions, eating disorders, and transgressive conducts. When boundaries that lead to subjectivity are not imposed, and ethical values not transmitted, the subject tends to drawn in an acephalus impulsiveness and in an egocentric hedonism that ignores alterity. The contradiction is then installed between the auto-erotic indulgence and the pleasure principle, so that the analytical task is to frame indulgence to enable the subject to transcend his/her narcissistic-instinctual universe, and therefore have access to the sublimatory level, characterized by the discursive pleasures. The author insists that the analysts must sustain a clinical practice based on the ethics of difference, since the social imaginarium tries to deny differences between genders and generations. With this objective, the author demonstrates that there is a trend towards abolishing - by means of certain analytical schools - the diagnostic categories of psychic health and disease; towards validating the imprecise concept of gender, exalting narcissistic positions, and legitimating - as mere living styles - pathological conditions such as transsexualism and perversions.The article is concluded with some considerations on the current clinical practice, which should be inscribed in a horizon of symbolic legality, and destined to frame, with no exceptions, indulgence without alterity, in order to access creatively the field of the pleasure principle, with the desiderative ethics that is inherent to it.

El autor señala las diferencias existentes entre la realidad imperante en la época freudiana y la actual. En la modernidad la realidad estaba signada por un orden represivo, que si bien favorecía la emergencia de la enfermedad neurótica, permitía la rebeldía y el cuestionamiento creativo. En la posmodernidad, la defección estructural de la figura del Padre y el colapso ético inherente al debilitamiento de la legalidad, genera una realidad cultural que propicia las políticas de goce - adicciones, trastornos alimenticios y conductas transgresivas. Al no imponerse el límite subjetivante ni trasmitirse valores éticos, el sujeto tiende a naufragar en una pulsionalidad acéfala y en un hedonismo egocéntrico, que desconoce la alteridad. La contradicción se instala pues entre el goce autoerótico y el principio del placer, de modo que la tarea analítica consiste en acotar el goce, para que el sujeto pueda trascender su universo narcisístico-pulsional y acceder así al plano sublimatorio, signado por los placeres discursivos. El autor insiste en la necesidad de que los analistas sostengan una práctica clínica basada en la ética de la diferencia, dado que el imaginario social busca desmentir de las diferencias sexuales y generacionales. A tal efecto muestra como se tiende a abolir - incluso por ciertas corrientes analíticas - las categorias diagnósticas de salud y enfermedad psíquica; a validar el impreciso concepto de género; a exaltar las posiciones narcisísticas y a legitimar - como meros estilos existenciales - a condiciones patológicas tales como el transexualismo y las perversiones. Finaliza el artículo haciendo algunas consideraciones sobre la práctica clínica actual, la que debe inscribirse en un horizonte de legalidad simbólica, y debe estar destinada acotar sin concesiones los goces sin otredad, para acceder creativamente al campo del principio del placer con la ética desiderativa que le es inherente.

Prazer, gozo e realidade no mundo contemporâneo / Placer, goce y realidad en el mundo contemporáneo / Pleasure, indulgence and reality in the contemporary world

O autor aborda as diferenças existentes entre a realidade imperante na época freudiana e na época atual. Na modernidade, a realidade estava caracterizada por uma ordem repressiva que, embora favorecesse o surgimento da doença neurótica, permitia a rebeldia e o questionamento criativo. Na pós-modernidade, a defecção estrutural da figura do Pai e o colapso ético inerente ao enfraquecimento da legalidade geram uma realidade cultural que propicia as políticas de gozo - adições, transtornos alimentares e condutas transgressivas. Diante da não imposição do limite subjetivante e da não transmissão de valores éticos, o sujeito tende a naufragar numa pulsionalidade acéfala e num hedonismo egocêntrico que desconhece a alteridade. A contradição instala-se, então, entre o gozo auto-erótico e o princípio do prazer, de modo que a tarefa analítica consiste em delimitar o gozo para que o sujeito possa transcender seu universo narcisístico-pulsional e ter acesso, assim, ao plano sublimatório, caracterizado pelos prazeres discursivos. O autor insiste na necessidade de que os analistas sustentem uma prática clínica baseada na ética da diferença, já que o imaginário social busca desmentir das diferenças sexuais e geracionais. Com essa finalidade, mostra como se tende a abolir - inclusive por certas correntes analíticas - as categorias diagnósticas de saúde e doença psíquica; a validar o impreciso conceito de gênero; a exaltar as posições narcisísticas e a legitimar - como meros estilos existenciais - condições patológicas como o transexualismo e as perversões. Finaliza o artigo fazendo algumas considerações sobre a prática clínica atual que deve ser inscrita num horizonte de legalidade simbólica e deve estar destinada a delimitar, sem concessões, os gozos sem alteridade, para acessar criativamente o campo do princípio do prazer com a ética desiderativa que lhe é inerente.(AU)

The author approaches the existing differences between the reality in the the Freudian and current times. In the Modem Age, reality was characterized by a repressive order that, although favored the appearance of neurotic disease, allowed the rebellion and the creative questioning. In post-modernity the structural defection of the father figure and the inherent ethical collapse to the weakening of legality generate a cultural reality that provides the policies of indulgence addictions, eating disorders, and transgressive conducts. When boundaries that lead to subjectivity are not imposed, and ethical values not transmitted, the subject tends to drawn in an acephalus impulsiveness and in an egocentric hedonism that ignores alterity. The contradiction is then installed between the auto-erotic indulgence and the pleasure principle, so that the analytical task is to frame indulgence to enable the subject to transcend his/her narcissistic-instinctual universe, and therefore have access to the sublimatory level, characterized by the discursive pleasures. The author insists that the analysts must sustain a clinical practice based on the ethics of difference, since the social imaginarium tries to deny differences between genders and generations. With this objective, the author demonstrates that there is a trend towards abolishing - by means of certain analytical schools - the diagnostic categories of psychic health and disease; towards validating the imprecise concept of gender, exalting narcissistic positions, and legitimating - as mere living styles - pathological conditions such as transsexualism and perversions.The article is concluded with some considerations on the current clinical practice, which should be inscribed in a horizon of symbolic legality, and destined to frame, with no exceptions, indulgence without alterity, in order to access creatively the field of the pleasure principle, with the desiderative ethics that is inherent to it.(AU)

El autor señala las diferencias existentes entre la realidad imperante en la época freudiana y la actual. En la modernidad la realidad estaba signada por un orden represivo, que si bien favorecía la emergencia de la enfermedad neurótica, permitía la rebeldía y el cuestionamiento creativo. En la posmodernidad, la defección estructural de la figura del Padre y el colapso ético inherente al debilitamiento de la legalidad, genera una realidad cultural que propicia las políticas de goce - adicciones, trastornos alimenticios y conductas transgresivas. Al no imponerse el límite subjetivante ni trasmitirse valores éticos, el sujeto tiende a naufragar en una pulsionalidad acéfala y en un hedonismo egocéntrico, que desconoce la alteridad. La contradicción se instala pues entre el goce autoerótico y el principio del placer, de modo que la tarea analítica consiste en acotar el goce, para que el sujeto pueda trascender su universo narcisístico-pulsional y acceder así al plano sublimatorio, signado por los placeres discursivos. El autor insiste en la necesidad de que los analistas sostengan una práctica clínica basada en la ética de la diferencia, dado que el imaginario social busca desmentir de las diferencias sexuales y generacionales. A tal efecto muestra como se tiende a abolir - incluso por ciertas corrientes analíticas - las categorias diagnósticas de salud y enfermedad psíquica; a validar el impreciso concepto de género; a exaltar las posiciones narcisísticas y a legitimar - como meros estilos existenciales - a condiciones patológicas tales como el transexualismo y las perversiones. Finaliza el artículo haciendo algunas consideraciones sobre la práctica clínica actual, la que debe inscribirse en un horizonte de legalidad simbólica, y debe estar destinada acotar sin concesiones los goces sin otredad, para acceder creativamente al campo del principio del placer con la ética desiderativa que le es inherente.(AU)

Experiences of exclusion when living on a ventilator: reflections based on the application of Julia Kristeva's philosophy to caring science.

The research presented in this work represents reflections in the light of Julia Kristeva's philosophy concerning empirical data drawn from research describing the everyday life of people dependent on ventilators. It also presents a qualitative and narrative methodological approach from a person-centred perspective. Most research on home ventilator treatment is biomedical. There are a few published studies describing the situation of people living at home on a ventilator but no previous publications have used the thoughts in Kristeva's philosophy applied to this topic from a caring science perspective. The paper also addresses what a life at home on a ventilator may be like and will hopefully add some new aspects to the discussion of philosophical issues in nursing and the very essence of care. Kristeva's philosophy embraces phenomena such as language, abjection, body, and love, allowing her writings to make a fruitful contribution to nursing philosophy in that they strengthen, expand, and deepen a caring perspective. Moreover, her writings about revolt having the power to create hope add an interesting aspect to the work of earlier philosophers and nursing theorists.

Bruteau's philosophy of spiritual evolution and consciousness: foundation for a nursing cosmology.

The ontological foundation of the modern world view based on irreconcilable dichotomies has held hegemonic status since the dawn of the scientific revolution. The post-modern critique has exposed the inadequacies of the modern perspective and challenged the potential for any narrative to adequately ground a vision for the future. This paper proposes that the philosophy of Beatrice Bruteau can support a foundation for a visionary world view consistent with nursing's respect for human dignity and societal health. The author discusses the key concepts of Bruteau's perspective on societal evolution based on an integrated study of science, mathematics, religion, and philosophy. This perspective is discussed as a foundation to move beyond the dichotomous influence of the modern world view and the deconstructive critique of the post-modern perspective. The author suggests spiritual evolution and a participatory consciousness as an ontological foundation for a cosmology congruent with nursing's social mandate.

(Re)cognizing postmodernity: helps for historians--of science especially.

Postmodernity, a historical era demarcated from modernity by a broad reversal in cultural presuppositions, is distinguished from postmodernism, an intellectual posture adopted by self-identified postmodernists early in postmodernity. Two principal features of postmodernity are addressed: first, the downgrading of science and the upgrading of technology in cultural rank--on which postmodernity and postmodernism are in accord; second, the displacement of the methodical, disinterested scientist, modernity's beau ideal, not by a fragmented subject as postmodernism claims, but by the single-minded entrepreneur, resourcefully pursuing his self-interest in disregard of all rules. The reversal in rank and role as between science and technology, setting in circa 1980, is a marker of the transition from modernity to postmodernity. That reversal is to be cognized primarily as rejection of rule-following, of proceeding methodically--'methodism' being the cultural perspective that uniquely distinguished modernity--but also as rejection of disinterestedness, the quality of mind especially highly esteemed in modernity. Postmodernity is constituted by this transvaluation of values, whose well-spring is the egocentric, transgressive (hence 'risk taking'), postmodern personality and its anti-social presumptions regarding personhood. Within the history of science itself there has been since circa 1980 a corresponding turn of scholarly attention away from science to technology, and a growing distaste for social perspectives, reflected, i.a., in the rejection of causalist 'influence' explanations in favor of voluntarist 'resource' explanations.

The Afghan War and 'postmodern' memory: commemoration and the dead of Helmand.

Since 2006, Britain has been fighting an intense military campaign in Helmand in which over 200 soldiers have been killed. The article examines the way in which twentieth-century commemorative rituals, which mourned the sacrifice of anonymous individual soldiers for the nation, have been superseded by new lapidary conventions which fundamentally revise the status of the soldier in public imagination. In acts of remembrance today, soldiers are personalized and domesticated, remembered as fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. The article concludes by considering the political implications of this revision of public understanding.

Professional knowledge and the epistemology of reflective practice.

Reflective practice is one of the most popular theories of professional knowledge in the last 20 years and has been widely adopted by nursing, health, and social care professions. The term was coined by Donald Schön in his influential books The Reflective Practitioner, and Educating the Reflective Practitioner, and has garnered the unprecedented attention of theorists and practitioners of professional education and practice. Reflective practice has been integrated into professional preparatory programmes, continuing education programmes, and by the regulatory bodies of a wide range of health and social care professions. Yet, despite its popularity and widespread adoption, a problem frequently raised in the literature concerns the lack of conceptual clarity surrounding the term reflective practice. This paper seeks to respond to this problem by offering an analysis of the epistemology of reflective practice as revealed through a critical examination of philosophical influences within the theory. The aim is to discern philosophical underpinnings of reflective practice in order to advance increasingly coherent interpretations, and to consider the implications for conceptions of professional knowledge in professional life. The paper briefly examines major philosophical underpinnings in reflective practice to explicate central themes that inform the epistemological assumptions of the theory. The study draws on the work of Donald Schön, and on texts from four philosophers: John Dewey, Nelson Goodman, Michael Polanyi, and Gilbert Ryle. Five central epistemological themes in reflective practice are illuminated: (1) a broad critique of technical rationality; (2) professional practice knowledge as artistry; (3) constructivist assumptions in the theory; (4) the significance of tacit knowledge for professional practice knowledge; and (5) overcoming mind body dualism to recognize the knowledge revealed in intelligent action. The paper reveals that the theory of reflective practice is concerned with deep epistemological questions of significance to conceptions of knowledge in health and social care professions.

A nursing manifesto: an emancipatory call for knowledge development, conscience, and praxis.

The purpose of this paper is to present the theoretical and philosophical assumptions of the Nursing Manifesto, written by three activist scholars whose objective was to promote emancipatory nursing research, practice, and education within the dialogue and praxis of social justice. Inspired by discussions with a number of nurse philosophers at the 2008 Knowledge Conference in Boston, two of the original Manifesto authors and two colleagues discussed the need to explicate emancipatory knowing as it emerged from the Manifesto. Our analysis yielded an epistemological framework based on liberation principles to advance praxis in the discipline of nursing. This paper adds to what is already known on this topic, as there is not an explicit contribution to the literature of this specific Manifesto, its significance, and utility for the discipline. While each of us have written on emancipatory knowing and social justice in a variety of works, it is in this article that we identify, as a unit of knowledge production and as a direction towards praxis, a set of critical values that arose from the emancipatory conscience-ness and intention seen in the framework of the Nursing Manifesto.

The use of Hegelian dialectics in nursing science.

The aim of this column is to describe dialectics as a philosophy and method which can be used by nurses to make a contribution to nursing science. Dialectics can be used in three ways: as a philosophical approach, as a method using the dialectic laws, and as a method of describing the dialectic process by focusing on the dynamic elements of the process. Dialectics can also be combined with hermeneutics.

'Normal', 'natural', 'good' or 'good-enough' birth: examining the concepts.

In the face of increasing intervention in childbirth, 'normal birth' is currently being promoted by the World Health Organization, national governments, professional bodies and other organisations throughout the world. This paper takes a postmodernist stance and explores the idea of the 'normal' before going on to analyse normal childbirth, referring to concepts of the normal and the natural. It refers to historical developments in childbearing and lay organisations along with research relating to women's views of childbirth, to question the appropriateness of using 'normal' to describe the very individual experiences of childbirth. It laments the way in which women have been treated and arguably continue to be 'cared for' in maternity/obstetric services. It adds to the current discussion by recalling psychoanalytical theory and philosophical analysis to conclude with a call for future consideration of the 'good-enough' birth instead of concentrating on promoting normal birth which is very difficult, if not impossible to define in retrospect, or to prospectively promote.

On the way to learning.

The purpose of this article is to explore concepts of thinking and learning in a Heideggerian sense. It inquires into a theoretical and practical conceptualization, explores possibilities for participation in thinking and learning in the nursing experience, and offers a philosophy of learning appropriate to the nursing experience.

Husserl and Heidegger: exploring the disparity.

Introduced as an alternative to empirical science, phenomenology offers nursing an insightful means for understanding nursing phenomena specifically in relation to lived experiences. However, not all phenomenologies were created equal, a point which has left many a nursing researcher not only confused. Furthermore, this confusion might result in the choosing of a philosophical framework that is neither cognizant with the research question nor the epistemological lens through which the researcher operates. Drawing on common nursing examples to illustrate concepts, the authors closely examine and debate the disparities between Husserl's transcendental phenomenology and Heidegger's hermeneutic approach to phenomenology. The aim of the article is to demystify the dense language used and present the fundamental beliefs of each philosopher in a format that is accessible to novice phenomenologists.