German Critical Psychology - open access

Critical Psychology emerged in the 1970s, radically questioning traditional psychology by taking the subject's view. Klaus Holzkamp was the central founding figure. Since it is based on Marx and dialectic materialism, it has been marginalized at the university level in Germany as a result. Nevertheless, despite the lack of institutionalized recognition Critical Psychology is present in and out of universities in the form of autonomous seminars. On top of that, every two years a Summerschool is held with international participation. Though Critical Psychology by now is well known in the English-speaking world, central works are still not available in English. We want to compensate for that by translating outstanding works into English. In addition, Charles Tolman has written an easily accessible introductory book in English, which we intend to make available in German under the open access label. All texts are to be published both as printed books and free of charge PDF downloads.

We would like to get in contact with all people who are interested in German Critical Psychology and want to support its dissemination. We have three specific translation projects in mind:

• (1) Charles Tolman, Psychology, Society, and Subjectivity: translation into German.
• (2) Klaus Holzkamp, Grundlegung der Psychologie (Foundations of Psychology): Translation into English
• (3) Klaus Holzkamp, Lernen. Subjektwissenschaftliche Grundlegung (Learning: Subject-Scientific Foundations): Translation into English.

With the starting level of 2000€ we can realize the first translation project as an open access book. For the second and third project, and hopefully others to be added, we require more funds. Help us to reach further funding levels.

First: There are only a few original texts of German Critical Psychology available in the English-speaking world. We want to change that. Above all, the two central works by Klaus Holzkamp will be translated into English and published as open access by an English publishing house.

Secondly: In order to counteract the marginalization of Critical Psychology, we have to organize ourselves in and out of the universities and have reading material at hand. This exactly is what we want to provide in the form of open access.

Thirdly, the book "Psychology, Society, and Subjectivity" by Charles Tolman is highly rated by many as an excellent introduction into German Critical Psychology, however, still only available in English. We have translated it into German and will publish it in the Argument-Verlag - as open access.

Your support allows us to compensate publishers for lost revenue from free downloads. Only then they are willing to publish books under a free license as open access.

Some people can afford printed books and prefer reading printed paper to reading on electronic devices. For this group, the works should continue to be available as printed books. For those on a small budget and PDF fans, the texts will be downloadable free
of charge. In this way, we hope to achieve the widest distribution possible, and that is our ultimate goal: to offer the chance to all readers interested, students and scholars alike, to get to know German Critical Psychology.