Resistance and Renewal in Theoretical Psychology

Theoretical psychologists continue to challenge psychology, related disciplines and the work of other theoretical psychologists through a wide variety of activities that include conceptual clarification and creative theorizing. In many cases, these activities are experienced by the relevant individuals and groups as resisting broader disciplinary and societal forces; this occurs not only by highlighting tacit assumptions, but also by developing theory-led projects to change the conditions in which our work and lives are constructed, regulated and renewed. These two features of theoretical psychology, resistance and renewal, form the overall theme for a selection of theoretical papers that is framed — in this iteration of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology's (ISTP) proceedings — by reflections on the 30 year history of the ISTP as well as by considerations of the future.

The diversity and creativity of the work undertaken within theoretical psychology is further exemplified by papers on the history of the ISTP and theoretical psychology, a new paradigm for functional disorders, experimental introspection and techniques of self, the performativity of psychological science, a dialectical-materalistic perspective on consciousness, the meaning of values, reconsiderations of metarepresentation, evolution in information-driven systems, the emancipatory potentials of Vygotsky’s universalism, language shaped movements of the self into “other spaces”, collective agency and conflictual care in refugee family life, resilience thinking in disaster research and practices, resisting quality management in higher education, the relationality and reflexivity of resistance and renewal, research on psychological science from its borders, rethinking possible selves research, imagination and embodied features of future-focused experience, perennial activities for theoretical psychology, and theorizing the future of theoretical psychology and psychology.