Biography

Dr. Heather Macdonald is a core faculty member at Fielding Graduate University. Dr. Macdonald came to academia after years of practice as a clinical psychologist whose work involved community outreach, and individual therapeutic services to children and families in the foster care system and in the juvenile justice system. As a community based clinical psychologist and a person who has lived in Asia and Africa, she has always sought to understand mental health issues within the context of their respective social, economic and political environments and believes that groups and communities are the preferred sites of intervention.

Dr. Macdonald’s work in the U.S. and abroad has led to scholarly research on the interface between culture, justice, relational ethics, clinical practice and post-colonial thought. Her research draws upon a cross-fertilization of ideas and disciplines including phenomenology and psychopolitical theories of embodiment. Her most recent books and articles include the following: African American Young Men and the Diagnosis of Conduct Disorder: The Neo-Colonization of Suffering (2015); Does Psychology “matter”? An analysis of relevance in South African psychology (2017); Race, Rage, and Resistance: Philosophy, Psychology and the Perils of Individualism (2019); and a forthcoming edited volume titled: Neoliberalism, Ethics, and the Social Responsibility of Psychology: Dialogues at the Edge to be published by Routledge.

Industry Expertise (2)

Research

Education/Learning

Education (4)

New Mexico State University: Master of Science, Clinical Psychopharmacology (Post Doctoral MSCP)

Projected Clinical Psychopharmacology (Post Doctoral MSCP) December 2023

Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR: Psy.D., Clinical Psychology (Focus: Psychological Evaluation) 2008

APA-Accredited Clinical Psychology Program

Seattle University, Seattle, Washington: Master of Arts, Existential-Phenomenological Psychology 2004

Chapman University, Bremerton, WA: Bachelor of Arts, Social Sciences 2002

Event Appearances (12)

A Philosophical Approach to Pastoral Psychological Evaluation: Deleuze, Ricoeur and Levinas

Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology Midwinter meeting  Phoenix Arizona.

2018-03-01

Levinas and the Fantasy of the Cyborg.

APA Div. 24, Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology Midwinter meeting,  Phoenix Arizona.

2018-03-01

In the Wake of the Event: Evential Hermeneutics and Psychological Evaluation.

APA Div. 24, Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology Midwinter meeting,  Phoenix Arizona.

2018-03-01

The Commercialization of Mt.Everest.

Panelist presenter at the Boston Museum of Science  Boston, MA.

2018-02-01

A Philosophical Approach to Pastoral Psychological Evaluation: Deleuze, Ricoeur and Levinas.

Psychology for the Other conference  Seattle, WA.

2017-10-01

Cultural and critical explorations in community psychology.

Reflective Spaces/Material Places  East Boston, MA.

2016-01-01

The psychic life of the political.

Interview presentation at the Psychology and the Other Conference,  Cambridge, MA.

2015-10-01

Hermeneutics, self, and psychology.

Interview presentation at the Psychology and the Other Conference,  Cambridge, MA.

2015-10-01

Conduct disorder, social justice and the collaborative assessment model.

Paper presented at the Society for Personality Assessment  New York, New York.

2015-03-01

Life positioning analysis and Nelson Mandela.

Paper presented at the Dialogical Self Conference  University of the Hague, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

2014-08-14

The disruption of the archive and figures of freedom in South Africa.

Paper presented at the Apartheid Archive Conference  Pretoria, South Africa.

2014-05-01

Systems of portable justice: Our work with children and families.

Keynote speaker at the Jumping Mouse Children’s Center  Port Townsend, WA.

2014-02-01

Articles (13)

Culture Collaboration and Community: Psychological interventions from six continents. (in press).

Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group.

(Eds. Barbara Mercer, Ph.D. Heather Macdonald, Psy.D. and Caroline Purves, Ph.D.).

FORTHCOMING BOOK

Neoliberalism, ethics, and the social responsibility of psychology: Dialogues at the edge.

New York: Routledge; Taylor & Francis Group.

Macdonald, H., Goodman, D, & Carabbio, S. (Eds). (in press).

FORTHCOMING BOOK

Race, rage, and resistance: philosophy, psychology and the perils of individualism.

New York: Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.

Goodman, D., Severson, E., & Macdonald, H. (2019).

BOOK

Dialogues at the edge of American psychological discourse (Volume I): Critical and theoretical perspectives in psychology.

New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Macdonald, H., Goodman, D. & Becker, B. (2017).

BOOK

Cultural and critical explorations in community psychology.

New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN: 978-1-349-95037-9.

Macdonald, H. (2016).

BOOK

Does Psychology “matter”? An analysis of relevance in South African psychology.

PsycCritiques, 62(6), Article 5.

Becker, B., & Macdonald, H. (2017).

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A relational existential psychology: Ethics and embodiment.

The Humanistic Psychologist, 43(2), 121–127. doi:10.1080/08873267.2014.990456.

Goodman, D., Macdonald, H., & Becker, B. (2015).

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African American young men and the diagnosis of conduct disorder: The neo-colonization of suffering.

Clinical Journal of Social Work, 43(4), 431–441. doi:10.1007/s10615–015–0531–8

Atkins-Loria, S., Macdonald, H. & Mitterling, C. (2015).

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A thought on giving: Toward an aneconomic relational subjectivity.

Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 34, 214–228. doi:10.1037/a0037759

Becker, B., Goodman, D., & Macdonald, H. (2014).

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The ghetto intern: Culture and memory.

Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 45, 61–71. doi:10.1163/15691624– 12341268

Macdonald, H., Goodman, D., & Howe, K. (2014).

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Editorial introduction to Psychology and the Other.

Pastoral Psychology, 62, 4.doi:10.1007/s11089–012–0475–7

Macdonald, H., & Goodman, D. (2013).

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Levinas in the hood: Portable social justice.

Humanistic Psychologist, 39, 305–311. doi:10.1080/08873267.2011.618044

Macdonald, H. (2011).

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Crossing the cultural divide: Issues in translation, mistrust and co-collaboration in therapeutic assessment.

Journal of Personality Assessment, 94, 3, 1–9. doi:10.1080/00223891.2011.648293

Rosenberg, A., Macdonald, H., & Almeida, A. (2010).

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