The Off-Modern (Psychology Estranged)

Society is undergoing a process of deep change and transformation as the neoliberal order moves into crisis. Contemporary psychology, mired in exceptionalism and individualism, fails to address this broader context and continues with a fragmented reductionist approach which is alienating to students and practitioners alike. In the lifetime of the discipline there have been several distinct frameworks to emerge - psychoanalytic, behaviourist and cognitive. To these one might add Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory as the last attempt to present a coherent and challenging framework for how to understand our lives. As society moves into a new phase, Ron Roberts argues the need for a new way of ‘doing’ psychology which challenges not only the existing epistemological and reductionist outlook, but the centrality of a scientific professional discourse as a suitable vehicle for improving lives and making sense of the world.