Introduction
Voicelessness is an intriguing concept for critical psychology. In both mainstream and critical psychology, there has been a tendency to assume that having a voice is an unequivocal psychological and social good. By extension, voicelessness has been associated with psychological disorder (e.g., mutism, lack of affect) or, in more critical parlance, as a marker of subjugation, where voice is denied. Subsequently there are few traditional debates in relation to this topic, it is rarely even mentioned. However, there has been a shift in critical psychology in recent years, to address voicelessness in more complex and nuanced ways, not least in granting it a more ambivalent role in the socially contingent production of subjectivity. This has opened up space for critical discussion, and the intention here is to convey a sense of those debates.
Definition
“Voiceless” is defined literally as having no voice, mute. “Voicelessness” has a further pejorative implication in psychology...
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Adams, M. (2014). Voicelessness. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_602
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