Ian Parker has been a leading light in the fields of critical and discursive psychology for over 25 years. The Psychology After Critique series brings together for the first time his most important papers. Each volume in the series has been prepared by Ian Parker and presents a newly written introduction and focused overview of a key topic area.

Psychology After Discourse Analysis is the third volume in the series and addresses three central questions:

• How did discourse analysis develop inside psychology?
• How does discursive psychology address concerns about the traditional 'laboratory experiment' paradigm in psychology?
• What is the future for discourse analysis?

The book provides a clear account of the various forms of discourse analysis that have been used within psychology, and provides a review of their significance for a new generation of psychologists. The early chapters present a framework for understanding the origins of these various forms, as well as the differences between them. Emphasizing the gap between discursive psychology and mainstream psychology, Parker then explores relations between discourse analysis, psychoanalysis, social constructionism and the postmodern turn in the social sciences. The final chapters describe the limitations of discourse analysis and explore its flaws as a framework and as a practice, questioning its future within academia and in political and social contexts beyond psychology.

Psychology After Discourse Analysis is essential reading for students and researchers in psychology, sociology, social anthropology and cultural studies, and for discourse analysts of different traditions. It will also introduce key ideas and debates within critical psychology to undergraduates and postgraduate students across the social sciences.

About the Author

Ian Parker was Co-Founder and is Co-Director (with Erica Burman) of the Discourse Unit. He is a member of the Asylum: Magazine for Democratic Psychiatry collective, and a practising psychoanalyst in Manchester. His research and writing intersects with psychoanalysis and critical theory. He is currently editing a book series Lines of the Symbolic (on Lacanian psychoanalysis in different cultural contexts) for Karnac Books. He edited the 2011 four-volume Routledge major work Critical Psychology, and is editing the series Concepts for Critical Psychology: Disciplinary Boundaries Re-Thought. His books on critical perspectives in psychology began with The Crisis in Modern Social Psychology, and How to End It (Routledge, 1989), and continued with Discourse Dynamics: Critical Analysis for Social and Individual Psychology (Routledge, 1992). His recent books include Qualitative Psychology: Introducing Radical Research (Open University Press, 2005) and Revolution in Psychology: Alienation to Emancipation (Pluto Press, 2007).

Reviews

'This series is the comprehensive resource we have been waiting for to enable new generations of budding psychologists, and all those who concern themselves with how we might live, to find their way to a just appreciation of what it might be to understand the myriad ways a human being can be a person among persons.' - Rom Harre, Linacre College, University of Oxford, UK, and the Psychology Department, Georgetown University, USA

'This is a daring and necessary book from a key advocate of discourse analysis in psychology. Ian Parker effortlessly weaves an accessible outline of the field of discourse analysis in psychology and a radical argument 'for' and 'against' its use as a critical tool. This is an inspirational call for researchers to shape a different path for discourse analysis by connecting it with psychoanalysis and political and psychological culture - a call that hopefully will help transform both critical and mainstream psychology, as well as the practice of discourse analysis itself.' - Cristian Tileaga, Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, UK

Book Information
ISBN 9781848722118
Author Ian Parker
Format Paperback
Page Count 138
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 190g