Teo is a critical-theoretical psychologist who employs metatheory and history to provide a more reflexive understanding of the foundations and trajectories of current psychology while projecting alternatives to the status quo. His research has argued for psychology becoming a self-reflexive discipline that provides disciplinary and social interventions.
Critique of psychology
Teo has contributed to critical-theoretical work since his early publications on the history of German Critical Psychology,[1] broadening the concept of critical psychology, integrating various streams of critical thought, including feminism, postcolonialism, social constructionism, political theory, indigenous psychology, and hermeneutics, that were applied to ontological, epistemological, ethical, and more recently aesthetic [2] contexts of psychology. Significant critiques of psychology were investigated in The Critique of Psychology: From Kant to Postcolonial Theory,[3] which was the first book to provide a systematic history of the critique of psychology. As an international leader of critical psychology he edited the Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology.[4] In 2015 he summarized the status of critical psychology in the flagship journal of the APA the American Psychologist.[5]
Critique of scientific racism and epistemological violence
An important critical project that Teo pursued was the study of racism and scientific racism, some of which was published in German.[6] He worked on racism and mixed race and in a series of articles advanced the meaning of the concept of epistemological violence in empirical research.[7][8][9][10]Epistemological violence is committed when interpretations of empirical data implicitly or explicitly constitute the Other as inferior or problematic, despite the fact that alternative interpretations, equally viable, based on the same results, are available.
Critical history
Teo’s historical work has drawn on history, with history as a means and not as an end.[11] Connecting the philosophy of psychology with the history of psychology he co-authored A Critical History and Philosophy of Psychology: Diversity of Context, Thought, and Practice.[12] Several historical studies focused on twin research, the history of critical psychology, and the history of German psychology.[13][14]
Theoretical psychology and psychological humanities
Teo supports the idea of critical psychology as a generative and international movement that provides reflexivity and interference in psychosocial affairs. His latest book Outline of Theoretical Psychology: Critical Investigations[15] discusses basic philosophical problems in the discipline and profession of psychology. By engaging with basic theoretical problems, Teo demonstrates how psychology can avoid its pitfalls and participate as a force for resistance and the good. To do so, Teo has made the argument that psychology needs to draw on the psychological humanities (including history, philosophy, political theory, science and technology studies, etc...) to understand human mental life.[16] He has argued that the development of psychology as a science and the struggle for scientific recognition has disrupted the need to interrogate the discipline and the profession from the critical perspective of the humanities, the arts, and the concept-driven social sciences.[17]
References
^Teo, Thomas (1998). "Klaus Holzkamp and the rise and decline of German Critical Psychology". History of Psychology. 1 (3): 235–253. doi:10.1037/1093-4510.1.3.235. PMID11620316.
^Teo, Thomas (2017). "Subjectivity, aesthetics, and the nexus of injustice: From traditional to street art". In Awad, S. H.; Wagoner, B (eds.). Street art of resistance. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 39–62. ISBN9783319633305.
^Teo, Thomas (2015). "Critical psychology: A geography of intellectual engagement and resistance". American Psychologist. 70 (3): 243–254. doi:10.1037/a0038727. PMID25621493.
^Teo, Thomas (2011). "Empirical race psychology and the hermeneutics of epistemological violence". Human Studies. 34 (3): 237–255. doi:10.1007/s10746-011-9179-8. S2CID53580412.
^Teo, Thomas (2010). "What is epistemological violence in the empirical social sciences?". Social and Personality Psychology Compass. 4 (5): 295–303. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00265.x.
^Teo, Thomas (2004). "The historical problematization of "mixed race" in psychological and human-scientific discourses". In Winston, A (ed.). Defining difference: Race and racism in the history of psychology. American Psychological Association. pp. 79–108. CiteSeerX10.1.1.577.8111. doi:10.1037/10625-004. ISBN978-1-59147-027-4.
^Teo, Thomas (2013). "Agnotology in the dialectics of the history and philosophy of psychology". Theory & Psychology. 23 (6): 840–851. doi:10.1177/0959354313504838. S2CID146853792.
^Teo, Thomas (2013). "Backlash against American psychology: An indigenous reconstruction of the history of German critical psychology". History of Psychology. 16 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1037/a0030286. PMID23394178.
^Teo, Thomas (2017). "From psychological science to the psychological humanities: Building a general theory of subjectivity". Review of General Psychology. 21 (4): 281–291. doi:10.1037/gpr0000132. S2CID148812068.