Critical discursive psychology / Ian Parker, University of Leicester, UK.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- 1. Theoretical Discourse, Subjectivity and Critical Psychology -- -- PART I: ENLIGHTENMENT, REALISM AND POWER -- 2. Against Postmodernism: Psychology in Cultural Context -- 2a. Against Against-ism: Comment on Parker; Fred Newman and Lois Holzman -- 2b. Critical Distance: Reply to Newman and Holzman -- 3. Against Relativism in Psychology, On Balance -- 3a. Regulating Criticism: Some Comments on an Argumentative Complex; Jonathan Potter, Derek Edwards and Malcolm Ashmore -- 3b. The Quintessentially Academic Position -- 4. Against Wittgenstein: Materialist Reflections on Language in Psychology -- 4a. The Practical Turn in Psychology: Marx and Wittgenstein as Social Materialists; John. T. Jost and Curtis D. Hardin -- 4b. Reference Points for Critical Theoretical Work in Psychology -- -- PART II: THE TURN TO DISCOURSE AS A CRITICAL THEORETICAL RESOURCE -- 5. Discursive Psychology Uncut -- 6. Discourse: Definitions and Contradictions -- 6a. Discourse: Noun, Verb or Social Practice?; Jonathan Potter, Margaret Wetherell, Ros Gill and Derek Edwards -- 6b. The Context of Discourse: Let's Not Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater; Dominic Abrams and Michael A. Hogg -- 6c. Real Things: Discourse, Context and Practice -- -- PART III: CRITICAL DISCURSIVE RESEARCH, SUBJECTIVITY AND PRACTICE -- 7. Reflexive Research and Grounding of Analysis: Psychology and the Psy-Complex -- 8. Tracing Therapeutic Discourse in Material Culture -- 9. Constructing and Deconstructing Psychotherapeutic Discourse -- 10. The Psychosocial Turn -- 11. Critical Reflections.

"Recent years have seen dramatic changes in psychology. A discipline that was once wedded to positivist inquiry is now reaping the benefits of a series of objections to its paradigmatic limitations in the late 1960s and 1970s. Arguments about the importance of accounts and the role of language in the creation of psychological facts and subjective experience have blossomed into various schools of discourse analysis and readings of texts. Alongside these strands of work have emerged feminist approaches that attended to the social structuring of meaning and power, and these radical approaches have put critical work on the agenda. The emergence of 'critical psychology' has now provided another important setting for assessing the contribution of qualitative research to what critical discursive research means in psychology, and for taking those debates forward. In this 2nd Edition, Ian Parker introduces key issues in critical discursive research in psychology, and outlines the historical context in the discipline for the emergence of this work. The book sets out methodological steps for critical readings of texts, arguments that can be made for qualitative research in academic settings, and arguments that could be made against it by critical psychologists"-- Provided by publisher.