Ignacio Martin-Baro: Psychology of Liberation, or in the Service of the Status Quo?

"Among the criticisms most often made of psychologists...is that the majority devote most, if not all, of their attention to the well-to-do sectors, and as such, their work tends to center on the personal roots of problems--a focus that causes them to ignore social factors. The social context is thus converted into a kind of natural phenomenon, an unquestioned assumption, before whose 'objective' demands the individual must seek, individually and even 'subjectively,' the solutions to his or her problems. With this focus and with this clientele, it is not a surprise that psychology is serving the interests of the established social order, as a useful instrument for reproducing the system."

-- Ignacio Martin-Baro, "Writings for a Liberation Psychology (pp. 37-38)