The Radical Psychology Network (RadPsyNet) is an organization with the goal of encouraging reform in the field of
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
. It began in Toronto in 1993 when two dozen people attended a discussion at the
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
convention entitled "Will Psychology Pay Attention to its Own Radical Critics?"
Today the group has more than 500 members in over three dozen countries. Members include
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...
s and others, academics and practitioners, faculty and students,
psychotherapist
Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...
s and patients. It publishes the online ''Radical Psychology Journal'' (published for ten years until its final issue in 2011) and sponsors an active email discussion list.
The aim of the group is to change the ''
status quo
is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, economic, legal, environmental, political, religious, scientific or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the curren ...
'' of psychology. Challenging psychology's traditional focus on minor reform, members emphasise enhancing human welfare by working for fundamental social change. They claim that psychology itself has too often oppressed people rather than liberated them and they work to redress this imbalance. In keeping with this aim, RadPsyNet co-founders Dennis Fox and Isaac Prilleltensky co-edited ''Critical Psychology: An Introduction'' in 1997, and many RadPsyNet members are active in academic critical psychology as well as in opposition to
psychological abuse
Psychological abuse, often known as emotional abuse or mental abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another person to a behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including Anxiety disorder, anxiety, c ...
s.
See also
*
Critical psychology
Critical psychology is a perspective on psychology that draws extensively on critical theory. Critical psychology challenges the assumptions, theories and methods of mainstream psychology and attempts to apply psychological understandings in diff ...
*
Psychopolitical validity Psychopolitical validity was coined by Isaac Prilleltensky in 2003 as a way to evaluate community psychology research and interventions and the extent to which they engage with power dynamics, structural level of analysis, and promotion of social j ...
, coined by Isaac Prilleltensky in 2003 as a way to evaluate
Community Psychology
Community psychology is concerned with the community as the unit of study. This contrasts with most psychology, which focuses on the individual. Community psychology also studies the community as a context for the individuals within it,Jim Orf ...
research
References
External links
New Ideas and Old Values in PsychotherapyRadical Psychology Network homepage
{{Authority control
Anti-psychiatry
Psychology organizations based in the United States
Psychological societies
Criticism of science