This article outlines the essential characteristics of a psychology from the subject standpoint that starts from the principal unity of self-determination and determining the relations that determine one's own actions. The main research object in subject science understood in this way is the many forms of hindrances and obstacles, both in theory and in practice, that prevent us from realizing this unity. In contrast to standard research, where one attempts to grasp the dependency of the individual agency of others on societal structures and their cultural meanings, psychology from a subject standpoint is about relating to the societability of one's own actions, that is, analysing them to grasp their own real preconditions and implications. Consequently, in such a subject science perspective, the aim is less to gain or disseminate knowledge and more to analyse the many ways in which “critical” knowledge urging change is ignored or modified to make it compatible with one's own actual possibilities to act. As the paper details, such subject science research is not possible from an external standpoint but entails subjecting one's own assumptions and methods to a critical analysis.
Adorno, T. (2005). Minima moralia: Reflections on a damaged life (E.F.N. Jephcott, Trans.). London: Verso. (Original work published 1951)
2.
Améry, J. (1999). Resentment. In At the mind's limits: Contemplations by a survivor on Auschwitz and its realities (pp. 62-81). London : Granta.
3.
Burman, E. (1995a). The abnormal distribution of development: Child development and policies for southern women. Gender, Place and Culture, 2(1), 21-36.
4.
Burman, E. (1995b). Developing differences: Childhood and economic development. Children and Society, 9, 121-141.
5.
Burman, E. (2008). Deconstructing developmental psychology (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
6.
Dray, W. (1957). Laws and explanation in history. London: Oxford University Press.
7.
Ehrenreich, B. (2002). Nickel and dimed: Undercover in low-wage America . London: Granta.
8.
Engels, F. (1975). The conditions of the working class in England . In K. Marx & F. Engels, Collected works: Vol. IV. 1844-1845 (pp. 295-596). Moscow: Progress.
9.
Foucault, M. (1997). What is critique? In S. Lotringer (Ed.), The politics of truth (L. Hochroth & C. Porter, Trans., pp. 23-82). New York: Semiotext(e) . (Original work published 1978)
10.
Freud, S. (1955a). Group psychology and the analysis of the Ego . In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. XVIII, pp. 65-143). London: Hogarth. (Original work published 1923)
11.
Freud, S. (1955b). Psychotherapy of hysteria. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. II, pp. 253-305). London: Hogarth . (Original work published 1893)
12.
Freud, S. (1959). Inhibition, symptoms and anxiety. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. XXI, pp. 77-175). London: Hogarth . (Original work published 1926)
13.
Freud, S. (1961a). Civilization and its discontents. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. XXI, pp. 57-145). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1930)
14.
Freud, S. (1961b). The future of an illusion. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. XXI, pp. 1-56). London: Hogarth . (Original work published 1927)
15.
Freud, S. (1964). New introductory lectures on psycho-analysis. Lecture XXXIV: Explorations, applications, orientations. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. XXII, pp. 136-157). London: Hogarth. (Original work published 1933)
16.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. Princeton, NJ: Basic Books.
17.
Holzkamp, K. (1973). Sinnliche Erkenntnis-Historischer Ursprung und gesellschaftliche Funktion der Wahrnehmung [Sensory knowledge: Historical origin and social function of perception]. Frankfurt/M. , Germany: Fischer-Athenäum.
18.
Holzkamp, K. (1983). Grundlegung der Psychologie [Foundations of psychology] . Frankfurt/M., Germany: Campus .
19.
Holzkamp, K. (1986). Die Verkennung von Handlungsbegründungen als empirische Zusammenhangsannahmen in sozialpsychologischen Theorien: Methodologische Fehlorientierung infolge von Begriffsverwirrung [Misjudging reasons for actions as statements on empirical relations in social-psychological theories: Methodological misorientation due to the lack of categorial clarity]. Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie , 17, 216-238.
20.
Holzkamp, K. (1996a). Manuskripte zum Arbeitsprojekt "Lebensführung" [Manuscripts for the "Conduct of Life" project]. Forum Kritische Psychologie, 36, 7-112.
21.
Holzkamp, K. (1996b). Lernen: Subjektwissenschaftliche Grundlegung-Einführung in der Hauptanliegen des Buches [Learning: A subject science foundation- Introduction to the main concerns]. Forum Kritische Psychologie, 36, 113-131.
22.
Holzkamp, K. (1997a). Theorie und Praxis im Psychologiestudium [Theory and practice in studying psychology]. In Normierung, Ausgrenzung, Widerstand (pp. 345-354). Hamburg, Germany: Argument.
23.
Holzkamp, K. (1997b). Praxis-Funktionskritik eines Begriffs [Practice: Analysing the concept's function ]. In Normierung, Ausgrenzung, Widerstand (pp. 355-384). Hamburg, Germany: Argument.
24.
Kershaw, I. (1981). Alltägliches und Außeralltägliches: ihre Bedeutung für die Volksmeinung 1933-1939 [The meaning of normality and abnormality in public opinion]. In D. Peukert & J. Reulecke (Eds.), Die Reihen fest geschlossen (pp. 273-292). Wuppertal, Germany: Peter Hammer-Verlag.
25.
Leont'ev, A.N. (1981). Problems of the development of the mind (M. Kopylova, Trans.). Moscow: Progress. (Original work published 1959)
26.
Levi, P. (2001). The drowned and the saved. London: Abacus. (Original work published 1986)
27.
Lutz, C.A. (1988). Unnatural emotions. Everyday sentiment on a Micronesian atoll and their challenge to Western theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
28.
Lutz, C.A. (1990). Engendered emotion: Gender, power, and the rhetoric of emotional control in American discourse. In L. Abu-Lughod & C.A. Lutz (Eds.), Language and the politics of emotion (pp. 69-91). Cambridge , UK: Cambridge University Press.
29.
Marx, K. (1975). Letters from the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher . In K. Marx & F. Engels, Collected works: Vol. III. 1843-1844 (pp. 133-134). Moscow: Progress.
30.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1975a). The German ideology. In K. Marx & F. Engels, Collected works: Vol. V. 1845-1846 (pp. 19-581). Moscow: Progress.
31.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1975b). The holy family or critique of critical criticism. against Bruno Bauer and company. In K. Marx & F. Engels, Collected works: Vol. IV. 1844-1845 (pp. 5-211). Moscow: Progress.
32.
Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1976). The manifesto of the Communist Party. In K. Marx & F. Engels, Collected works: Vol. VI. 1845-1848 (pp. 477-519). Moscow: Progress.
33.
Osterkamp, U. (1996). Flüchtlingswohnheime als Mikrokosmos typischer Bewältigungsund Abwehrstrategien. Aus der Arbeit des Projekts Rassismus/Diskriminierung [Refugee hostels as microcosmos of typical mastering and defense strategies. From the work of the racism/discrimination project]. In U. Osterkamp (Ed.), Rassismus als Selbstentmächtigung (pp. 41-74). Hamburg, Germany: Argument-Verlag.
34.
Osterkamp, U. (2008). Soziale Selbstverständigung als subjektwissenschaftliches Erkenntnisinteresse [Social self communication as a subject-scientific interest of realization]. Forum Kritische Psychologie, 54, S.9-28.
35.
Scarry, E. (1985). The body in pain. The making and unmaking of the world. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
36.
Stenner, P. (2005). Emotional dimensions of right, or: On the importance of having the right emotions. History and Philosophy of Psychology , 7(1), 11-21.
37.
Wrench, J., Brar, H., & Martin, P. (1993). Invisible minorities: Racism in new towns and new contexts. Monographs in Ethnic Relations, Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick (6, Serial No. 151).
38.
Žižek, S. (1999). The ticklish subject: The absent centre of political ontology. London: Verso.
