Critical Psychology: An Introduction [Paperback]

Dennis R Fox (Editor), Isaac Prilleltensky (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 076195211X | ISBN-13: 978-0761952114 | Publication Date: May 5, 1997 | Edition: First Edition

`Critical Psychology acknowledges the influence of related perspectives including feminism, critical theroy, postmodernism, hermeneutics and discursive psychology. Fox and Prilleltensky do not set out to write an account of the history of critical psychology.... Instead, Fox and Prilleltensky's text introduces us to a particular strand of recent critical work in psychology. The book is also notable because it stands as a potential teaching text, which is relatively unusual in critical psychology.... Finally, perhaps the most telling endorsement for any book is that I have already ordered copies for use in an undergraduate psychology module.... I welcome this thought provoking and accessible text, and look forward to subsequent editi

Editorial Reviews

Review

`Anyone who is interested in psychology and where it is going, and where it might go in the future, has to read this book....I certainly found it stimulating and satisfying' - Self and Society

`Critical Psychology acknowledges the influence of related perspectives including feminism, critical theroy, postmodernism, hermeneutics and discursive psychology. Fox and Prilleltensky do not set out to write an account of the history of critical psychology.... Instead, Fox and Prilleltensky's text introduces us to a particular strand of recent critical work in psychology. The book is also notable because it stands as a potential teaching text, which is relatively unusual in critical psychology.... Finally, perhaps the most telling endorsement for any book is that I have already ordered copies for use in an undergraduate psychology module.... I welcome this thought provoking and accessible text, and look forward to subsequent editions' - British Journal of Educational Psychology

`A long awaited text... The book encourages students new to the topic to question conventional texts and approaches to the discipline. It does so through a rigorous presentation of research material that encourages the reader to want to find out more... This is a book that I... ended up gripped by and there are not many text books that interest you in this way... it introduces readers to a wide variety of perspectives and approaches to Critical Psychology... I think this book will appeal to researchers who are not only defining a subject area but also refining their research techniques... the chapters left me itching to read more... The book deals sensitively with the challenges that Critical Psychology makes to the profession... [and] provides us with the e-mail numbers of some of the contributing editors so that readers can pass on their comments directly to them, which is something that few texts in psychology encourage us to do... This is a book that I shall definitely encourage my students to read if only to encourage them to think that there is a "different approach" to that adopted in mainstream psychology' - British Psychological Society History and Philosophy of Psychology Newsletter

`I opened this book as a final year undergraduate student disillusioned with mainstream scientific psychology, looking for a psychology which has relevance outside academia, which spurns empty intellectualist rhetoric and which avoids hypocrisy in its theory and practice. I was looking for a psychology which could explain, criticize and empower. The opening chapter of this book made me optimistic that here at last I had found one.

In the opening chapter, the editors openly trace their interest in critical psychology to their own, contrasting, experiences of social injustice and oppressive regimes. This introduction through the lives of the editors is a nice touch, absent from many texts but true to critical psychology's assumption that subjective reflection is an inescapable and indeed necessary component part of all psychology' - Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd; First Edition edition (May 5, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076195211X
• ISBN-13: 978-0761952114
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,827,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)