The Critique Of Psychology And Critical Psychologies

This dissertation explores the possibility of critical "psychologies" which develop alternative subjectivities outside the box of traditional psychology through the critique of psychology, namely, a critical reflection on the premises and boundaries of mind and psychology and the way they are inherently articulated with capitalism from the perspective of Marxist philosophy. It first investigates how Marx reacts against the basic problem of modern thought, namely "the immanence of consciousness" since Descartes, with his revolutionary clarification of "the sensuous-objective (gegenstandliche) activity". Marx in the same vein accomplishes the ontological turn of his philosophy and eventually penetrates this sort of immanence. As the intertextual construction of his philosophical turn, Marx’s view of psychology at the level of philosophical psychology, that is, "My relation to my environment is my consciousness", provides a critical agenda of historicality, totality and revolution foretold for the reflection of all existing psychologies and the imagination of all future psychologies. Within the horizon of the critical agenda foretold, the embodiment of Cartesian "immanence of consciousness" in psychology, i.e. the way in which human subjects are psychologised from the dimension of subject and object, is specially revisited. And based on this long-term division between the subjective and the objective dimension of psychology, in the face of the false solution for this division claimed by these two dimensions, a novel and constructive solution is proposed, that is, "objective relations of intentional actions" as an alternative concrete view of psychology at the level of general psychology. Functioning as the general psychology version of the aforementioned philosophical psychology, namely, the understanding of "My relation to my environment is my consciousness", this view of psychology creates a possibility to solve the long-standing theoretical and practical problems in Western psychology. Thus the Marxist critical agenda foretold for modern mind and psychology solves two problems. The one is the possibility of subjectivity. The other is which sort of subjectivity do we need. The former problem is against the "immanence of consciousness" since Descartes and the vulgar Marxist economic determinism. The latter is against the capitalist appropriation of "the immanence of consciousness" and subjectivity. Finally, as an important part of Western leftist discourse and the alternative of mainstream Western psychology, Critical Psychology and critical psychologies undoubtedly enrich and deepen our understanding of Western psychology and the new conditions in which it is articulated with contemporary capitalism. Critical Psychology and critical psychologies also inherit and develop the Marxist critical agenda foretold for modern mind and psychology both theoretically and practically.The logic structure of this dissertation is as follows. First it lays the theoretical basis for the critique of mind and psychology, i.e. the Marxist critical agenda of modern mind and psychology foretold. After that through the prism of this critical agenda foretold, special consideration is given to examining that how modern mind and psychology have been turning human subjects into psychologised ones. The dissertation concludes by discussing the alternative of modern mind and psychology as the inheritance and development of the Marxist critical agenda foretold in the context of Western leftist critical psychologies. In short, the dissertation consists of three themes. The first part is the critique of modern mind and psychology at the level of philosophical psychology. The second part is the critique of modern mind and psychology at the level of general psychology. The third part examines how the two levels of critique are historically expanded in the discourse of Western leftist critical psychologies.This work represents the first effort in China to systematically and comprehensively clarify the premises and boundaries of psychology from the perspective of Marxist philosophy and articulate the inherent logical connections between the two for allowing a legitimate starting point of alternative critical psychologies beyond traditional psychology. The innovation of this dissertation lies in its textual exploration, review and further elaboration of Marx’s original texts and critical psychologies, as well as grasp of basic problems in Marxism abroad. Moreover, it helps update Marxism and deepen our understanding and critique of the new situation that how psychology is in its complicity with capitalism in order that we can maintain vigilance against the emerging trend of psychologizing human subjectivity on a global scale. And finally, this dissertation is also of importance to inspire and guide the construction and development of psychology, including Chinese psychology.