Closet Cartesianism in Discursive Psychology

Abstract

Discursive psychology (DP) may not be as established in psychology as the theory of mind paradigm yet it does have some influential proponents and a fair number of followers. This chapter considers Discursive Psychology’s capacity to address and resolve the problems created by the idea of theory of mind and to provide a viable alternative. Through a detailed analysis of an argument between two discursive psychologists (Derek Edwards and Jonathan Potter) and an ethnomethodologist (Jeff Coulter) we show how DP is caught up in some of the same confusions as ToMism and that it fails to provide an original alternative to it distinct from ethnomethodology and conversation analysis.