Latin-American Marxist Critiques of Psychology (original) (raw)
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Springer - Latin American Voices , 2022
This book presents an intellectual history of the reception of Soviet psychology in Argentina as part of the communist scientific culture promoted by the Argentine Communist Party. This research reconstructs the material conditions, the political conjunctures and disciplinary disputes that allowed the international circulation of the works and ideas of Ivan Pavlov and Lev Vygotsky, and analyzes how pavlovism and vygotskianism impacted psychology, psychiatry and the wider mental health field in Argentina between 1935 and 1991. Starting on the 1930s, a group of professionals, scientists and intellectuals who belonged to the Argentine Communist Party introduced Soviet psychology in Argentina as an effort to promote the philosophical and political principles of Marxism-Leninism in Argentinean psychological and psychiatric academic circles, as well as in mental health institutions. This book shows how the efforts of this group contributed to the diffusion of communist scientific ideas and practices in South America as part of a transnational circuit of communist scholars and intellectuals that included France, Spain and the USA, which fostered scientific exchange and politicized science during the years of antifascist struggle and the Cold War. Communist Psychology in Argentina: Transnational Politics, Scientific Culture and Psychotherapy (1935-1991) will be of interest to historians of psychology and psychiatry concerned with the study of the relationship between Marxism and psychology in the 20th century, as well as to historians of science in general attentive to the study of the circulation of scientific ideas, as the book reconstructs the networks of the international communist movement as an effort to provide a scientific basis for the development of a socialist program in different parts of the world.
Viva Nacho! Liberating psychology in Latin America
PSYCHOLOGIST-LEICESTER-, 2004
Martín-Baró's Liberation Psychology (Psicología Social de la Liberación -PSL) (see ) attempted a double task. On the one hand it sought to put psychology at the service of the poor and oppressed majorities of the American continent. It sought to turn psychologists away from the internal problems of psychological research, or from practice orientated to a wealthy minority who could afford private services, and towards problems such as urban overcrowding, land reform and violence. But to do this implied a second task, the reconstruction of psychology from the standpoint of the excluded majorities of Latin America and other countries of the South. This meant both careful searching through the dominant North American psychology for useful concepts and findings, but always with a critical eye to their limitations, and for their untrustworthy ideological content, supplementing them with other material. Martín-Baró's two text books of social psychology (1983, 1989b) written in the heat of the El Salvadorian civil war, are remarkable works of reconstruction, integrating orthodox psychological theory with a more sociological and political analysis. For example his chapter on power starts from the classic French and Raven analysis, both offering a critique and adding in concepts from outside psychology.
Psychoanalysis and Marxism in Chile. Two Case Studies: Juan Marín Rojas and Alejandro Lipschütz.
2017
Drawing on a new critical history of psychoanalysis in Chile, this paper analyses the appropriations of psychoanalysis in the Chilean political field, particularly in the field of Marxist theory, as it appears in the work of two important intellectuals who published their contributions from the 1930s to the late 1950s. These two case studies are of Juan Marín Rojas, a medical doctor, writer and diplomat born in Chile in 1900, and of Alejandro (born Alexander) Lipschütz, an endocrinologist, physiologist and anthropologist born in Latvia in 1883 and who migrated to Chile in 1926 and naturalised as a Chilean citizen in 1941. This study provides the context and looks at the interactions, debates and problems that arise at the crossroads of psychoanalysis and Marxism in Chile between the 1930s and the 1950s, and it consequently opens the door for new perspectives from which to address the local history of psychoanalysis.
History of Psychology in Latin America. A Cultural Approach.
2021
This book presents a cultural history of psychology that analyzes the diverse contexts in which psychological knowledge and practices have developed in Latin America. The book aims to contribute to the growing effort to develop a theoretical knowledge that complements the biographical perspective centered on the great figures, with a polycentric history that emphasizes the different cultural, social, economic and political phenomena that accompanied the emergence of psychology. The different chapters of this volume show the production of historians of psychology in Latin America who are part of the Ibero-American Network of Researchers in History of Psychology (RIPeHP, in the Portuguese acronym for "Rede Iberoamericana de Pesquisadores em História da Psicologia"). They present a significant sample of the research carried out in a field that has experienced a strong development in the region in the last decades. The volume is divided into two parts. The first presents comparative chapters that address cross-cutting issues in the different countries of the region. The second part analyzes particular aspects of the development of psychology in seven countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru. Throughout these chapters the reader will find how psychology made its way through dictatorial governments, phenomena of violence and internal armed conflict, among others. Dimensions that include rigorous analysis ranging from ancestral practices to current geopolitical knowledge of the Latin American region. History of Psychology in Latin America - A Cultural Approach is an invaluable resource for historians of psychology, anywhere in the world, interested in a polycentric and critical approach. Since its content is part of the "cultural turn in psychology" it is also of interest to readers interested in the social and human sciences in general. Finally, the thoroughly international perspective provided through its chapters make the book a key resource for both undergraduate and graduate teaching and education on the past and current state of psychology.
This article introduces an edition of the Annual Review of Critical Psychology made up of papers originally presented at the Second Conference of Marxism and Psychology held in Morelia, Mexico, from 9-11 August 2012. We begin by introducing Marxism as a resource for critical psychology, one that is uniquely positioned to link the refusal of psychology, which lies at the core of critical work in the discipline, to a broader refusal of social relations and forms of subjectivity under capitalism and the ideological role psychology itself plays in their reproduction. We then sketch a panoramic overview of critical and reconstructive encounters between Marxism and psychology in various contexts around the world ever since Marx's own reflections on the nature of the psyche, serving as a background to the equally diverse encounters with Marxist theory and politics in the articles making up this edition of the Review. Finally, we zone in on the immediate context of the conference itself, giving substance to the idea that a Marxist critical psychology is one that both inspires and is further developed from forms of collective action, which locates its critique of psychology and capitalism not just in theory, but in practices of everyday life that already articulate and live this double refusal.
Psychology in Latin America: Current Status, Challenges and Perspectives 1st edition
Psicothema, 2020
Psychology in Latin America: Current Status, Challenges and Perspectives (Ardila, 2018) is the latest product of renowned Colombian psychologist, Dr. Rubén Ardila, the editor of the book, which has been released recently by the prestigious publishing house Springer. In this book review we discuss the qualifi cations of its editor, Dr. Ardila, and of the contributors he convened for the task. We also discuss the book content and its applicability. Dr. Ardila is an experimental psychologist, social scientist, professor, and leader in psychology (Consoli et al., 2017). Considered the most visible and infl uential Colombian psychologist, he is the founder of the Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología (Latin American Journal of Psychology) and Avances en Psicología Latinoamericana (Advances in Latin American Psychology). He has published 34 books and more than 300 scientifi c articles in prestigious journals from across the world. In 1983, Dr. Ardila received the Premio Interamericano de Psicología (Interamerican Psychology Award) from the Sociedad Interamericana de Psicología (Interamerican Society of Psychology), and in 2007, the Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology from the American Psychological Association. Perhaps most relevant to Dr. Ardila's qualifi cations for the task are the over half a century that he has invested in contributing to, refl ecting on, and disseminating the psychology work done in Latin America (see, for example, Ardila, 1968, 1986, 2004, 2018), his sizable accomplishments as editor of two of the most prestigious scientifi c journals in Latin America, and his deft editing of several books. Finally, considering the decision to publish this book in English, it is important to underscore that Dr. Ardila earned his doctoral degree
Psychoanalysis in Latin America
An overview of the development of psychoanalysis in Latin America, (especially Argentina) that underlines the relationships between clinical and cultural forms of psychoanalytic experience.