Critical Discursive Psychology Ian Parker Critical Discursive Psychology Also by Ian Parker Qualitative Methods in Psychology: A Research Guide (with Peter Banister, Erica Burman, Maye Taylor and Carol Tindall) Carrying Out Investigations in Psychology (with Jeremy Foster) Deconstructing Psychopathology (with Eugenie Georgaca, David Harper, Terence McLaughlin and Mark Stowell Smith) Psychology and Society: Radical Theory and Practice (co-edited with Russell Spears) Culture, Power and Difference: Discourse Analysis in South Africa (co-edited with Erica Burman, Amanda Kottler and Ann Levett) Psychoanalytic Culture: Psychoanalytic Discourse in Western Society Social Constructionism, Discourse and Realism (edited) Critical Textwork: An Introduction to Varieties of Discourse and Analysis (with the Bolton Discourse Network) Deconstructing Psychotherapy (edited) Cyberpsychology (co-edited with Angel Gordo-López) Critical Discursive Psychology Ian Parker © Ian Parker 2002 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 0–333–97381–X This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Parker, Ian, 1956– Critical discursive psychology / Ian Parker. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–333–97381–X 1. Psycholinguistics. 2. Discourse analysis – Psychological aspects. I. Title. BF455 .P345 2002 150–dc21 2002074812 10987654321 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, and Eastbourne For Erica Contents Acknowledgements xi Notes on Contributors xiii 1 Theoretical Discourse, Subjectivity and Critical Psychology 1 Situated knowledge 2 Theoretical critical distance 8 Complex subjectivity 14 Conclusions and openings 18 PART I Enlightenment, Realism and Power (and their Reverse) 19 2 Against Postmodernism: Psychology in Cultural Context 21 Postmodern against the modern 23 A detour: postmodern narrative and Enlightenment practice 36 Four Enlightenment reversals 38 Conclusion 45 2a Against Against-ism: Comment on Parker Fred Newman and Lois Holzman 46 2b Critical Distance: Reply to Newman and Holzman 52 Knowing something 52 Knowing nothing 54 3 Against Relativism in Psychology, On Balance 57 Introduction 57 For relativism, and against 60 For critical realism, and against 66 The separation and reconnection of moral–political critique 71 3a Regulating Criticism: Some Comments on an Argumentative Complex Jonathan Potter, Derek Edwards and Malcolm Ashmore 73 Introduction 73 Rhetorical troubles 76 vii viii Contents Recruiting the tortured, oppressed and murdered 77 Critical realist psychology and critical realism in and against psychology 78 Trouble in the Parker-complex 80 3b The Quintessentially Academic Position 82 4 Against Wittgenstein: Materialist Reflections on Language in Psychology 85 Wittgenstein and psychology 88 Words, the world and power 92 Psychology, again 100 Contexts 103 Connections and conclusions 104 4a The Practical Turn in Psychology: Marx and Wittgenstein as Social Materialists John. T. Jost and Curtis D. Hardin 108 The practical turn 108 Wittgenstein was not a relativist 111 (The later) Wittgenstein was not an essentialist 113 The politics of Wittgenstein 114 Synthesizing Marx and Wittgenstein 116 4b Reference Points for Critical Theoretical Work in Psychology 117 Wittgenstein and Marx 117 Contradictions 119 Synthesis 120 PART II The Turn to Discourse as a Critical Theoretical Resource 121 5 Discursive Psychology Uncut 123 Defining ‘discourse’ 123 Historical resources: two traditions 125 Discourse analysis in psychology 128 Axes of difference in discursive research 132 Remaining questions 141 6 Discourse: Definitions and Contradictions 142 Introduction 142 The turn to language 143 Contents ix Criteria 145 Auxiliary criteria 154 Reflections and conclusions 157 6a Discourse: Noun, Verb or Social Practice? Jonathan Potter, Margaret Wetherell, Ros Gill and Derek Edwards 160 Introduction 160 Discourse analysis: descriptive and constructive 162 Reification and intuition 164 Interpretative repertoires 168 6b The Context of Discourse: Let’s Not Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater Dominic Abrams and Michael A. Hogg 172 6c Real Things: Discourse, Context and Practice 180 Object status 181 Context 182 Practice 184 PART III Critical Discursive Research, Subjectivity and Practice 187 7 Reflexive Research and Grounding of Analysis: Psychology and the Psy-Complex 189 Objectivity 191 Subjectivity 194 Discursive complexes 197 The psy-complex 199 Discussion 202 Concluding comments 203 8 Tracing Therapeutic Discourse in Material Culture 205 The material 206 Analytic steps 208 Therapeutic discourse, subject positions and power 216 Concluding comments 219 9 Constructing and Deconstructing Psychotherapeutic Discourse 220 Psychotherapeutic regimes of knowledge 222 Deconstructing psychotherapeutic knowledge 228 x Contents 10 Critical Reflections 234 Discipline 234 Culture 235 History 236 Institutions 237 Reflections 238 References 241 Index 263 Acknowledgements Many thanks again for their comments and help to Judith Arrowsmith, Erica Burman, Eugenie Georgaca, Angel J. Gordo-López, Sarah Grogan, Sean Homer, Bernardo Jiménez-Domínguez, Karen Henwood, Ian Law, Rhiannon Lloyd, Terence McLaughlin, Deborah Marks, Richard Mepham, Kevin Moore, Alan Preston, Martin Roiser, John Shotter, Heather Walton and Carla Willig. Chapter 2 was originally published in 1998 as ‘Against Postmodernism: Psychology in Cultural Context’, in Theory and Psychology, 8 (5), 601–627 (reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd ©); the response by Fred Newman and Lois Holzman was published in 2000 as ‘Against Against-ism’, in Theory and Psychology, 10 (2), 265–270 (reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd ©); and my reply was published in 2000 as ‘Critical Distance’, in Theory and Psychology, 10 (2), 271–276 (reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd ©). Chapter 3 was originally published in 1999 as ‘Against Relativism in Psychology, On Balance’, in History of the Human Sciences, 12 (4), 61–78 (reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd ©); the response by Jonathan Potter, Derek Edwards and Malcolm Ashmore was published in 1999 as ‘Regulating Criticism: Some Comments on an Argumentative Complex’, in History of the Human Sciences, 12 (4), 79–88 (reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd ©); and my reply was published in 1999 as ‘The Quintessentially Academic Position’, in History of the Human Sciences, 12 (4), 89–91 (reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd ©). Chapter 4 was originally published in 1996 as ‘Against Wittgenstein: Materialist Reflections on Language in Psychology’, in Theory and Psychology, 6 (3), 363–834 (reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd ©); the response by John T. Jost and Curtis D. Hardin was originally published in 1996 as ‘The Practical Turn in Psychology: Marx and Wittgenstein as Social Materialists’, in Theory and Psychology, 6 (3), 385–393 (reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd ©); and my reply was originally published in 1996 as ‘Reference Points for Critical Work in Psychology’, in Theory and Psychology, 6 (3), 395–399 (reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd ©). A shorter version of Chapter 5 was originally published in 1997 as ‘Discursive Psychology’, in Critical Psychology: An Introduction, edited by Dennis Fox and Isaac xi xii Acknowledgements Prilleltensky, published by Sage. Chapter 6 was originally published in 1990 as ‘Discourse: Definitions and Contradictions’, in Philosophical Psychology, 3, (2), 189–204 (reprinted by permission of Taylor and Francis Ltd, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals ©); the response by Jonathan Potter, Margaret Wetherell, Ros Gill and Derek Edwards was originally published in 1990 as ‘Discourse: Noun, Verb or Social Practice?’, in Philosophical Psychology, 3, (2), 205–217 (reprinted by per- mission of Taylor and Francis Ltd, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals ©); the response by Dominic Abrams and Michael A. Hogg was originally published in 1990 as ‘The Context of Discourse: Let’s Not Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater’, in Philosophical Psychology, 3 (2), 219–225 (reprinted by permission of Taylor and Francis Ltd, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals