ABSTRACT

This paper presents the role and function of discourse analysis as a new methodological approach which promotes critical intervention within psychology. At the starting point the paper presents some of the criteria for defining discourse analysis. It addresses ways of identifying discourses and attends how these discourses should be distinguished from texts. The main focus is on the practical problems that confront a researcher attempting to carry out a discourse analysis. The paper ends by exploring the limits and the benefits of discourse analysis.

KEYWORDS: critical psychology, postmodernism, post-structuralism, discourse, discourse analysis.