Introduction
Psychology of oppression is both a phenomenon and an explanatory construct – just as psychology is a phenomenon and also the study of that phenomenon (e.g., behavioristic psychology, cognitive psychology). The phenomenon called “psychology of oppression” is the psychological effects of social oppression and the psychological requirements that sustain (are functional for) social oppression. In other words, social oppression includes a psychological complement in the victim that contributes to his subjugation. (Psychology of oppression also includes the psychology of oppressors, that we shall not explore here; but see Tabensky, 2010).
The construct “psychology of oppression” is a way of understanding psychological debilities as products of social oppression. It is a social-psychological construct that integrates psychology and society as two sides of the same coin. It identifies society as oppressive in certain ways and peoples’ psychology as implicated in that oppression...
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Ratner, C. (2014). Psychology of Oppression. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_571
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