Paper short abstract:

Drawing on ethnographic research with families in Sri Lanka, I explore how key conceptual tools and orientations from psychological anthropology that I employ pose difficulties in attending to social injustice, sometimes in ways that reinforce it, and how we might do better.

Paper long abstract:

For two decades I have conducted research with Sinhala families in Sri Lanka that has been solidly grounded in the concepts and approaches of psychological anthropology. However, my work has not engaged with issues of social justice or politics in any significant way, much as these are important to me personally. In this paper, I explore how some of the central tools I use in my research and my teaching serve to point me away from issues related to injustice and inequality, and in fact may contribute to them. In particular, I will consider the concept of the strange and familiar, cultural relativity, person-centered ethnography, psychodynamic analysis, and a critical approach to psychological theories. Each of these have provided powerful guidance and insight for me, but they have also limited what I can see and speak to. Further, they may serve to reinforce the kinds of divisions and exclusions that perpetuate inequality on many levels, including in our own subdiscipline. In this consideration, I will also suggest ways that we might use these approaches and others towards more effective and inclusive engagement, pointing to how I am trying to do this in my own work.