Day 1: Critical Psychology – A subject-scientific approach to Psychology!

In this course, students will have the possibility to engage with the concept of Critical Psychology. The relationship between the subject of knowledge (the scientific researcher) and the object of knowledge (the object studied) will be discussed. Therefore, the nomothetic versus interpretive character of the standpoint of an “I” within psychology will be taken into account. Peter Busch-Jensen will argue that the dichotomy between first-versus-third person perspective; and between the individual and society must be overcome by including the subjective dimension of human life. On this background, he will unfold a situated, social-symmetrical epistemology that forms the basic ideas of a Critical Psychology based on human subjectivity and first-person perspective. Following a theoretical input, the practices of learning, of studying, of being a student, will be critically looked at.

Day 2: Power, Subject, Agency and Psychology

In this course, students will learn how social power as an everyday entity can be considered as a central topic not only within psychology. Peter Busch-Jensen will elaborate on the hypotheses, that psychology isn’t simply producing objective knowledge, but in fact has a form of agency itself, since psychological knowledge is increasingly being applied in still more areas of social life to interpret, handle, and optimize social affairs: in management course, in self-help literature, in parental practices and in our social and political institutions etc. Drawing on Michel Foucault, amongst others, Peter Busch-Jensen starts the discussion of a performative aspect of psychological knowledge and its interdependences with social and psychological issues.