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Key thinkers including Deleuze and Guattari, Haraway, Grosz and Barad focus on the immanence of knowledge, where things ‘become’ as opposed to ‘are’.
Barad’s specific concept of agential realism presents an argument for an ‘onto-epistemological’ position where determinacy (or what we might refer to as knowledge) only occurs during a state of intra-action between phenomena and apparatus – including discourse, matter and methodology. Baradian theory has begun to find purchase in diverse areas of critical research and practice including education, nursing, and gender studies. The following argues that a Baradian approach has so far been overlooked within critical mental health studies in Psychology, despite its potential to bridge the often-met ontological and epistemological tensions between psy-materiality (brains, bodies and the material conditions understood as impacting upon mental states) and dominant mental health discourse.
The Centre of Psychological Research (PsyCen), within School of Humanities and Social Sciences, supports research projects dedicated to improving psychological wellbeing for different communities in conjunction with a range of external collaborators and funders.
The centre’s work showcases diverse methodologies, from psychometric and experimental designs to qualitative and critical psychology approaches, to advance knowledge across different branches of psychological science, from social and community psychology to cognitive neuroscience and biological psychology.
Dr Rowan Sandle is a Lecturer at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
