| Critical Psychology was a trend of thought that headed by Klaus Holzkamp (1927-1995), and it began in Germany in 1960s, and then spread to the entire Europe and other countries. It insisted on the Marxist outlook of psychology, and paid special attention to social cultural and political attributes of human psychology. Besides, it took traditional psychology as a tool serving the Capitalism. The critical theory of Frankfurt School promoted to conduct critical understanding to deconstruct the hegemony of Scientism, and provided a direct theoretical basis and tools for Critical Psychology. To a certain degree, Postmodernism accelerated the decline of Holzkamp's Critical Psychology, and gave birth to various forms of Critical Psychology and new research methods. In addition, Critical Psychology had also absorbed the ideas of feminism and the Latin American liberation movements, for their own development and set up a solid foundation for itself.Through the efforts of researchers, the ideological content of Critical Psychology is becoming increasingly clear. Critical psychology confronted the relationship between psychological theory and politics in the face, which carried significant politics. It also promoted the use of subjective research, and paid attention to the subjective position of researchers, and put emphasis on the partnerships between researchers and subjects. Critical Psychology believed that the role of psychological knowledge was to achieve freedom and liberation of humanity, helping people to obtain subjectivity. The politics, the subjectivity and the liberation of Critical Psychology came into mutual relationship, and it constituted the general frame of critical psychology.Critical psychologists in Germany that represented by Holzkamp adopted the empirical-historical methods and reconsidered psychological basic concepts, in order to establish a unified system. Due to the limits of research method in German Critical Psychology and the influence of postmodern thinking, the empirical-historical methods did not accomplish the task of conducting the concept system of psychology. Adopting the method of deconstruction, construction and reconstruction, it cleared up the authority of scientific psychology fundamentally.Critical Psychology introduced the standpoint of subject, and transforms this idea into feasible research patterns. The mainstream psychology put emphasis on the importance of researchers, but neglected the significance of the subjectivity of participators, which has caused the separation between theory and practice in this field. Critical Psychology drew specific methods from action research, and contacted the social environment with the individual who lived in together through analyzing the action potence. However, there are also some disadvantages for the development of Critical Psychology. The viewpoint is too confused to form a systematic theoretical system. In addition, critical psychology involves criticism of the mainstream ideology, their views often seem too radical, and were therefore excluded. |
