The Dark Side of the Mind
A Critical Look at Modern Psychology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18259/Keywords:
critical psychology, unconscious, ethics, dark sideAbstract
This paper examines the ethical, epistemological, and social conflicts that this discipline continues to carry despite its scientific consolidation. The importance of the study lies in questioning the normative role of psychology, its function of adaptation to the system, and its tendency to render invisible other ways of understanding human suffering. The objective is to reflect on the limitations of the hegemonic model and to propose a more critical, contextualized, and humane psychology. The methodology is qualitative and is based on the analysis of texts by authors such as Parker, Teo, Montero, and Rivera, whose ideas allow the traditional approach to be reconsidered from an ethical, political, and cultural perspective. The main result suggests that dominant psychology has contributed to pathologizing legitimate experiences, denying the structural roots of distress, and excluding non-Western knowledge, which demands a profound transformation toward a psychology committed to justice and diversity, and to questioning the role it assumes within a system that still reproduces inequality and oppression.
References
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7ª ed.).
Bracken, P., Thomas, P., Timimi, S., Asen, E., E., Behr, G., Bhui, K., Sweeney, A. (2012). Psychiatry beyond the current paradigm: A critique of the biomedical model. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 201(6), 430–434. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.112.109447
Canham, H., Bowman, B., Graham, T., Stevens, G., Langa, M., Jithoo, V., & Alexander, D. (2021). Conundrums in teaching decolonial critical community psychology within the context of neoliberal market pressures. Journal of Social Issues, 78(2), 366–387. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12462
Crockett, M. A., Martínez, V., Mac-Ginty, S., Langer, Á. I., Gaete, J., Núñez, D., & Léniz, I. (2024). Mental health service use and barriers to help-seeking among LGBTQ+ first-year college students in Chile. Journal of LGBT Youth. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2024.2347962
De Sousa Santos, B. (2018). The end of the cognitive empire: The coming of age of epistemologies of the South. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002000
Flick, U. (2007). An introduction to qualitative research (4ª ed.). Sage Publications. https://n9.cl/g0c3lr
Freud, S. (2003). El yo y el ello (J. Strachey, Trad.). Buenos Aires: Amorrortu. (Obra original publicada en 1923) https://n9.cl/fmard
González Rey, F. (1995). Comunicación, personalidad y desarrollo. La Habana: Editorial Pueblo y Educación.
Grosfoguel (2016): disponible en Tabula Rasa 24, donde describe el racismo/sexismo epistémico y cuatro genocidios/epistemicidios históricos DOI: https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.60
Guba, E. & Lincoln, Y. (1998). Paradigmas competitivos de la investigación cualitativa https://n9.cl/ipen1
Han, B.C. (2014). La sociedad del cansancio. Herder.
Hernández Sampieri, R., Fernández Collado, C., & Baptista Lucio, P. (2014). Metodología de la investigación: Enfoques cuantitativo, cualitativo y mixto (6ª ed.). McGraw Hill Interamericana.
Illouz, E. (2020). Happycracia: Cómo la ciencia y la industria de la felicidad controlan nuestra vida. Taurus. https://n9.cl/8h91r
Li, P.-J., Furlong, D. E., & Lester, J. N. (2025). Perspectives from qualitative researchers: Negotiating research ethics in qualitative research. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 26(1). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-26.1.4262
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.1016/0147-1767(85)90062-8
McGowan, T. (2020). The New Dark Ages: From the New Right to the New Left. Bloomsbury Academic.
Montero, M. (2008). Introducción a la psicología comunitaria: desarrollo, conceptos y procesos. Paidós.
Montero, M. (2010). Fortalecimiento de la ciudadanía y transformación social: Área de encuentro entre la psicología política y la psicología comunitaria. Psykhe, 19(2), 51–63. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-22282010000200006
Ortega Esquembre, C. (2025). Metodología y normatividad en la teoría crítica. El joven Habermas a la luz de Max Horkheimer. Pensamiento. Revista de Investigación e Información Filosófica, 80(311 Extra), 1743–1766. https://doi.org/10.14422/pen.v80.i311.y2024.032
Parker, I. (2009). Critical psychology: What it is and what it is not. Revista venezolana de psicología clínica comunitaria. https://n9.cl/4pmq8h
Parker, I. (2010). La psicología como ideología: Contra la disciplina. Los Libros de la Catarata.
Parker, I., & Pavón Cuéllar, D. (2021). Psychoanalysis and Revolution: Critical Psychology for Liberation Movements. 1968 Press. Psychodynamic Practice, 28(2), 232–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/14753634.2022.2037106
Pasqualini, M. (2025). Reseña de Edgar Cabanas y Eva Illouz, Happycracia: Cómo la Ciencia y la Industria de la Felicidad Controlan Nuestras Vidas (Bs. As.: Paidós, 2019). Psicología, Conocimiento y Sociedad, 15(1), https://doi.org/10.26864/pcs.v15.n1.6
Readsura Decolonial Editorial Collective. (2022). Psychology as a site for decolonial analysis. Journal of Social Issues, 78(2), 255–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12524
Rivera, Z. (2010). Epistemología del sur y psicología: Retos y desafíos. Revista Interamericana de Psicología, 44(2), 245–254.
Stolkiner, A. (2012). La salud mental en el debate de la ciudadanía y los derechos humanos. Revista Argentina de Salud Pública, 3(13), 22-26. https://n9.cl/ynmxco
Swisher, V. S., Őri, D., Rihmer, Z., & Wernigg, R. (2024). Understanding mental health help-seeking and stigma among Hungarian adults: A network perspective. European Psychiatry, 67(1), e52. https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2024.1772
Teo, T. (2015). Critical psychology: A geography of intellectual engagement and resistance. American Psychologist, 70(3), 243–254. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038727
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Apuntes de Ciencia & Sociedad

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.