Poverty, health, and health psychology : a critical perspective

In this paper I discuss the issue of poverty, its relation to health, and how health psycholo-gy might respond to this issue. In the first section of the paper, I briefly consider poverty, its extent and its links to health, with a specific focus on poverty in Italy. In the second section, I present a critical consideration of health psychology, its premises and how it seeks to work, the kind of knowledge it seeks to produce, and argue that this may not be the best way to understand or address issues of poverty or assist people living impoverished lives. In the final section of the paper, I discuss alternative ways of working that can offer health psychologist more effective ways to understand the complexities of poverty and impoverishment, and enhance opportunities for emancipation and change. I conclude that health psychology needs to critically reflect on its practice if it is to be effective in addressing complex social issues like poverty. [Publishers' text].