The Next Generation of Clinical-Psychological Science: Moving Toward Anti-Racism

Abstract

The field of clinical-psychological science exists in a broader field of psychology that is increasingly acknowledged as embedded in racist and white-supremacist history. In the production of clinical-psychological science, the clinical science model predominates as one of the most influential scientific voices that emphasizes the value of rigorous scientific theory, training, and praxis. We highlight some of the ways in which the clinical science model has neglected anti-racism. By examining the idiosyncratic development of the clinical science model in clinical-psychological science, we outline how its failure to contend with systemic racism in the field propagates a racist subdiscipline. Our hope is that by enacting difficult self-reflection, we invite other stakeholders in our field to think more critically about how systemic racism and white supremacy pervade our structures and institutions and to begin making more concrete changes that move the clinical-psychological-science field toward explicit anti-racism.