The possibility of a thematic session in the journal Psychology Studies (Estudos de Psicologia), edited by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas in the graduate program of Psychology, is a unique opportunity provided by the graduate program for debating and announcing what we have been producing in research laboratories. In addition to giving special thanks to the Journal’s Editing Team and the colleagues that have organized themselves to participate in this issue, the objective of these few words is to clarify how and why Critical Psychology is a movement within Psychology that seeks different ways of understanding and changing the current reality, especially of those who are at the margin of the economic and social systems.
Since 2001, the research group responsible for this theme (GEP Psychosocial Assessment and Intervention: Prevention, Community, and Liberation) has tried to base its production around criticizing a Psychology that is not compromised with the social changes necessary to include everyone, to curb violence, to curb the suffering of women and children, and to end labor exploitation; a Psychology dedicated to understanding and changing the Brazilian and Latin American reality. Psychology Prevention by Emory Cowen was the entrance, followed by Social Liberation Psychology by Ignácio Martín-Baró, and Critical Psychology, whose main interlocutors have helped us to advance the construction of our objectives. The path has been tortuous but encouraged important debates and synthesis greatly along the way.
This special issue contains some of our interlocutors. Maria de Fátima Quintal de Freitas, professor of the Universidade Federal do Paraná, representative of the movement Community Social Psychology in Brazil, and one of the pioneers in this area, provides a reflection on education in Psychology and the ethical dilemmas and tensions present in the confrontation of reality. Ernst Schraube, professor of the University of Roskilde in Denmark, presents an important justification for critical psychology using analytical strategies, thus justifying the importance of theory for scientific advancement. Athanasios Marvakis, professor of the University of Thessaloniki in Greece, points out how Psychology can analyze and act towards fascism – an important theme that has been poorly explored in Psychology. David Pavón-Cuellar and Jocelyn Arroyo-Ortega present the criticism made by the Zapatista National Liberation Army of the psychologies considered dominant. Lastly, Ana Paula Gomes Moreira and Raquel Souza Lobo Guzzo problematize trauma, a prevalent theme in Psychology, from the psychosocial perspective of Ignácio Martín-Baró, a Jesuit who constituted a Latin-American Psychology in response to the civil war in El Salvador. These articles are samples of what we may consider a movement within the Psychology of rupture with what is established, trying to contribute more clearly to the social change that we desire.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
Jul-Sep 2015
