In other areas of my life, the second edition of my co-edited book Critical Psychology: An Introduction has finally arrived in the mail. The first edition, which I put together with my longtime critpsy collaborator Isaac Prilleltensky, was published in 1997. It’s still in print, but Sage, the publisher, finally persuaded us a couple of years ago to expand to a second edition, which we agreed to do once we found a third collaborator, Stephanie Austin. You can see the Table of Contents on my website, with links to the publisher’s UK and US pages and Amazon (though the book may not be in stock in the US for another couple of weeks).
You can read the new edition’s introductory chapter online at the publisher. The book has 23 chapters with 35 authors. In addition to looking at various subdisciplines of psychology from a critical perspective – the core of the first book – this time we have new sections with chapters on social issues (race, gender, class, disability, colonialism, human rights, and the mental health system) as well as on critical practice (theory, research, therapy, organizational change, and the politics of resistance). It’s really mostly a new book, but the publisher wanted to keep the same title.
I’m happy with the way it turned out, though I’m sorry the first edition will soon be unavailable, or so I assume. We had to leave out material I really liked. You can still read introductions to the first book’s 19 chapters, and there should be plenty of used copies around.
What I like best about the new cover is that it uses a photo I took, part of my current fascination with abstract reflections (in this case, clouds and blue sky reflected in a lake at the University of Miami, where Isaac works). No photos inside, unfortunately.
I did a quick Google search and discovered the book already turns up in several places, including Wikipedia’s main article on Psychology. That article now lists Critical Psychology as one of psychology’s many subdisciplines; I’m not sure that’s what I’d call it, but more on that another time. Wikipedia’s separate article on Critical Psychology doesn’t yet list the new edition.
During my ego surfing I also stumbled across a UK website that sells essays to college students. Their sample essay on social psychological research answers this question:
“What are the strengths and weaknesses of a ‘critical’ compared to a ‘traditional’ approach to social psychological research. Limit your answer to one (or possibly two) areas of relevant research.”
A good traditional question. Fortunately, the site assures students that buying an essay is not cheating. I guess that’s thinking critically.
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