Critical distance - Reply to Newman and Holzman

Fred Newman and Lois Holzman's (2000) comment on my 'Against Postmodernism: Psychology in Cultural Context' (Parker, 1998) neatly displays the very di alectical processes they want to deny. Their refusal of 'critical distance' exemplifies postmodern avoidance of a political assessment of theories and practices (academic or otherwise), and their complaints about the institut ional location of critiques of postmodernism draw attention to their own tr ajectory into the sphere of academic argument and into the arms of mystifyi ng and depoliticizing postmodern ideology.