First-Person Perspective

Introduction

The first-person perspective is a central concept of critical psychology trying to make psychological processes and the subjective dimension of human life understandable. The concept refers to the point of view of the “I” as the way in which a human subject has access to herself/himself and the world and to her/his experiences, emotions, thoughts, and actions. The concept builds on a socio-materially situated understanding of the human being and stands in opposition to mainstream psychologies which conduct their research from an external – third-person – perspective. From such a view from above, or as critics argue, from “nowhere,” psychological phenomena and human life can only be understood in an abstract and reduced form. The individual appears one-sidedly as an effected and conditioned being, and the concrete reality of human subjectivity and agency, the active and acting side of everyday practice, remains out of sight.

Definition

Psychological processes are always...