ABSTRACT
In contrast to the dominant psychological perspectives, critical psychologies emphasize that individual psychology is socially and historically produced, infused with power relations, and struggled over politically. This chapter focuses on the psychology of education found in Paulo Freire's foundational scholarship on critical pedagogy and the psychoanalytic critical theory of Erich Fromm, whom Freire relies upon in his work. Teaching Freire with teacher candidates in the United States highlights the extent to which subjectivity and student experience is overwhelmingly formed through identifications with mass media representations. Critical social theories and critical perspectives on psychology share an assumption that the self and the society are constituted by difference, change, and contestation. In the late nineteenth century, the logic of repression became pronounced in the social sciences and humanities. Teachers can assist students in comprehending their own selves as a social and discursive product.
