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Community Psychology and Psychological Distress

Principles, Practices and Pedagogy 

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International Handbook of Psychology Learning and Teaching

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

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Abstract

Dominant approaches to support people in psychological distress are individualistic, emphasizing intervention conducted in the privacy of the therapy room, focused on exploring and resolving intrapsychic problems. This approach, originating with Freud, now has a wide variety of permutations, including self-psychology, cognitive models, and those inspired by Buddhism, dialectics, somatics, and more. This personal approach to mental distress, however, is limited, given that it fails to recognize the wider social, political, and cultural determinants of such distress and cuts the person off from their community, where solidarity, solace, and healing might also take place. The aim of this chapter is to introduce the reader to community psychology, as employed for the amelioration of psychological concerns. In particular, it serves as a primer for the content that might be included in teaching this subject to future activist-practitioners, with particular attention to the critical pedagogy involved. A case study will also be provided, outlining how a clinical psychology program was modified to include a community psychology curriculum. The development of activist-scholars focused on community psychology will also be discussed, with reference to a series of studies currently in progress.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Psychology Unit, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Paul Rhodes

Authors
  1. Paul Rhodes
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Correspondence to Paul Rhodes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Research, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Joerg Zumbach

  2. Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Bonita Springs, FL, USA

    Douglas A. Bernstein

  3. School of Science - Faculty of Psychology, Psychology of Learning and Instruction, Technische Universitaet Dresden, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany

    Susanne Narciss

  4. Department of Human, Philosophical and Educational Sciences (DISUFF), University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy

    Giuseppina Marsico

Section Editor information

  1. University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Joerg Zumbach

  2. Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    Douglas A. Bernstein

  3. Psychologie des Lehrens und Lernens, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Deutschland

    Susanne Narciss

  4. University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy

    Giuseppina Marsico

  5. Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil

    Giuseppina Marsico

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Rhodes, P. (2023). Community Psychology and Psychological Distress. In: Zumbach, J., Bernstein, D.A., Narciss, S., Marsico, G. (eds) International Handbook of Psychology Learning and Teaching. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28745-0_33

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