Mistaking the subject of violence in scientific psychology

Abstract

Barbara Held (2020) claims that critical and Indigenous psychologists are right to point out how scientific psychology has contributed to findings that do undue harm to racial groups, but are wrong to suggest that, due to epistemological violence, scientific psychology cannot provide psychological truths that may inform progressive public policies. She rightly questions the relevance to violence of “for” and “about” findings in being linked to metaphors of “below” and “above” as discussed in Thomas Teo’s work, but then pivots to offer a violent corrective, asserting the importance of objectivity for capturing the situated subjectivity of individuals engaged in the oppressive practice of othering. Despite its promise for socially just consequences, Held offers a psychological science that remains in itself a subject of violence.