The American Psychological Association has just announced its new president, and the choice was exactly what you would expect from any institution that dispenses credentials or represents those who have them: a DEI choice.
By that, I don't mean to impugn Candice Hargons' intelligence or competence as a scholar, because I have never read a word she's written, so I can't judge her on either metric. She could in fact be brilliant and a good administrator, for all I know, and my predisposition to hate her ideological leanings is not enough to make me feel comfortable assuming that she is just another Claudine Gay, who is an academic fraud.
If I had run across her publication record as a scholar without knowing she was the choice for president of the APA, I would probably have just rolled my eyes and made a snarky comment, but it actually matters what the president of the APA thinks about psychological issues, since those views either are or will implicitly become those of an institution with real weight in society.
These are the 10 most recent papers of the new APA president, Candice Hargons: 1. “That’s Probably What Euphoria Feels Like”: Nonbinary Black Womxn’s Gender Expression in an Antitrans (and Anti-Black [Womxn]) America American Psychologist, Sept. 2026 https://t.co/twOvzpHr9b 2. “Hard to Remember, then Hard to Forget”: A Qualitative Exploration into the Attitudes and Lived Experiences of Black People With Black Names Journal of Black Psychology, Oct. 2025 https://t.co/ld0tboWfN5 3. A Content Analysis of Cultural Mistrust Among African Americans in Therapy Settings Journal of Black Psychology, Oct. 2025 https://t.co/xvZ7tYy45e 4. “People Already Don’t Know What the Fuck I’m Saying”: Nonbinary Black Womxn Perspectives on Sharing Their Gendered-Racial Identity Journal of Counseling Psychology, Oct. 2025 https://t.co/tsWb9PWwQI 5. “It’s an honor to be in this body”: A Black feminist grounded theory of embodiment through yoga among Black womxn Body Image, Oct. 2025 https://t.co/Xi8gzrwssy 6. Brief Report: Naloxone Decline Among African American Kentuckians Substance Use & Addiction Journal, July 2025 https://t.co/CWlezBG1zH 7. “Nobody Ever Sat Me Down to Talk About That Kind of Stuff”: A Thematic Analysis of Heterosexual Black Men’s Genital Hygiene Messages Health Communication, May 2025 https://t.co/9c6sB0OMiK 8. “God Did for Me What I Couldn’t Do for Myself”: Understanding Religiosity, Spirituality, and Locus of Control Among Black Americans Who Use Opioids Journal of Religion and Health, Feb. 2025 https://t.co/P1BwZP6IBO 9. Understanding Coping Strategies and Sociocultural Context in Black Americans’ Mental Health Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, Feb. 2025 https://t.co/jb8WfrRY4u 10. The Nonbinary God: Disaggregating Spirituality and Christian Religiosity Among Nonbinary Black Womxn (NBBW) Journal of Counseling Psychology, Jan. 2025 https://t.co/CuaIMQprB7
— Benjamin Ryan (@benryanwriter) October 6, 2026
These are the 10 most recent papers of the new APA president, Candice Hargons:
1. “That’s Probably What Euphoria Feels Like”: Nonbinary Black Womxn’s Gender Expression in an Antitrans (and Anti-Black [Womxn]) America
American Psychologist, Sept. 2026
https://researchgate.net/publication/413684513_That's_Probably_What_Euphoria_Feels_Like_Nonbinary_Black_Womxn's_Gender_Expression_in_an_Antitrans_and_Anti-Black_Womxn_America
2. “Hard to Remember, then Hard to Forget”: A Qualitative Exploration into the Attitudes and Lived Experiences of Black People With Black Names
Journal of Black Psychology, Oct. 2025
https://researchgate.net/publication/396909040_Hard_to_Remember_then_Hard_to_Forget_A_Qualitative_Exploration_into_the_Attitudes_and_Lived_Experiences_of_Black_People_With_Black_Names
3. A Content Analysis of Cultural Mistrust Among African Americans in Therapy Settings
Journal of Black Psychology, Oct. 2025
https://researchgate.net/publication/396882965_A_Content_Analysis_of_Cultural_Mistrust_Among_African_Americans_in_Therapy_Settings
4. “People Already Don’t Know What the Fuck I’m Saying”: Nonbinary Black Womxn Perspectives on Sharing Their Gendered-Racial Identity
Journal of Counseling Psychology, Oct. 2025
https://researchgate.net/publication/396831816_People_already_don't_know_what_the_fuck_i'm_saying_Nonbinary_Black_womxn_perspectives_on_sharing_their_gendered-racial_identity
5. “It’s an honor to be in this body”: A Black feminist grounded theory of embodiment through yoga among Black womxn
Body Image, Oct. 2025
https://researchgate.net/publication/396564713_It's_an_honor_to_be_in_this_body_A_Black_feminist_grounded_theory_of_embodiment_through_yoga_among_Black_womxn
6. Brief Report: Naloxone Decline Among African American Kentuckians
Substance Use & Addiction Journal, July 2025
https://researchgate.net/publication/393785046_Brief_Report_Naloxone_Decline_Among_African_American_Kentuckians
7. “Nobody Ever Sat Me Down to Talk About That Kind of Stuff”: A Thematic Analysis of Heterosexual Black Men’s Genital Hygiene Messages
Health Communication, May 2025
https://researchgate.net/publication/391904305_Nobody_Ever_Sat_Me_Down_to_Talk_About_That_Kind_of_Stuff_A_Thematic_Analysis_of_Heterosexual_Black_Men's_Genital_Hygiene_Messages
8. “God Did for Me What I Couldn’t Do for Myself”: Understanding Religiosity, Spirituality, and Locus of Control Among Black Americans Who Use Opioids
Journal of Religion and Health, Feb. 2025
https://researchgate.net/publication/388793550_God_Did_for_Me_What_I_Couldn't_Do_for_Myself_Understanding_Religiosity_Spirituality_and_Locus_of_Control_Among_Black_Americans_Who_Use_Opioids
9. Understanding Coping Strategies and Sociocultural Context in Black Americans’ Mental Health
Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, Feb. 2025
https://researchgate.net/publication/388769360_Understanding_Coping_Strategies_and_Sociocultural_Context_in_Black_Americans'_Mental_Health
10. The Nonbinary God: Disaggregating Spirituality and Christian Religiosity Among Nonbinary Black Womxn (NBBW)
Journal of Counseling Psychology, Jan. 2025
https://researchgate.net/publication/388527875_The_Nonbinary_God_Disaggregating_Spirituality_and_Christian_Religiosity_Among_Nonbinary_Black_Womxn_NBBW
Most of those papers look just like the claptrap you see in any college curriculum: navel-gazing, respellings or redefinitions of words to make an ideological point, references to oppression through critical theory, and the like. But some obviously have real-world relevance, such as how black people's reaction to therapy might be different from a white person's, or how to treat opioid addiction. So perhaps she has something real to contribute.
Whatever. What matters is that she clearly was chosen for her ideological predisposition, and the APA says as much. Her qualification isn't that she is a star in the field, but that she is a social justice warrior.
A licensed psychologist, scientist, educator and organizational leader, Hargons advances liberation-oriented approaches to research, practice and community care, helping people live fully and well by collaboratively transforming systems that may compromise their well-being. Her work focuses on advancing mental and sexual health among couples. She is also a champion of community initiatives that bring mental health services into local neighborhoods.
“Psychology has extraordinary potential to improve people’s lives and help address society’s most enduring challenges,” Hargons said. “My vision is to bring psychologists together across specialties, career stages and communities to stand up for science, promote practitioner progress and collaborate in community care with a liberation and love ethic.”
A fellow of APA and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, Hargons has held leadership roles at the state, divisional and national levels of APA, including service on the APA Council of Representatives and APA Board of Directors. She was the first early career psychologist to represent APA Division 17, the Society of Counseling Psychology, on the Council of Representatives and the second early career psychologist to serve on the APA Board of Directors. Earlier in her career, she served on the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students Committee and earned an APA Minority Fellowship. Her honors include an APA Presidential Citation and the Kentucky Psychological Association’s Psychologist of the Year award.
Everything I bolded in that paragraph is straight-out-of-Critical-Theory jargon. The fact that "liberation" is such a key theme is also a tell. Her role, as she sees it, isn't helping people; it's driving societal change, and her research titles make it clear exactly in what direction — wokeness.
What you are seeing here is institutional capture, though I have to assume it happened years ago as part of the Long March Through the Institutions. The APA didn't choose a scholar who they thought would lead the institution in a way that represents a wide range of psychological theories and practices; it chose a particular ideological point of view that fits perfectly into the larger corpus of critical theory research and practice.
It aims to change society, not heal people and make them better able to cope with the world as it presents itself to them.
Practically speaking, this makes people anti-resilient, but that is a topic for another piece, and one others would be better positioned to explain. Suffice it to say that if you teach people that it is the world that must adapt to you and not you to the world in order to get ahead in life, you will spend all your time shaking your fist at the world.
Like a bunch of women wearing p***y hats, or BLM activists. Or trans activists. <insert unhappy group here>.
Coverage of @NaturePortfolio members pushing authors to select citations based on diversity rather than excellence, quality, primacy in @thetimes As best as I can tell, entirely ignored by US media https://t.co/hflKUoXQbV
— Venk Murthy MD PhD (@venkmurthy) October 27, 2025
I can't say I am surprised. The humanities, social sciences, and increasingly the STEM world in academia are driven by social justice ideology. There are now astronomy papers about how oppressive it is to use the term "black hole," after all.
Many people are, with justification, making fun of the titles of Hargons' papers, but that misses the larger point. What really matters is that a discipline that ought to examine the inner workings of the human mind and help people cope in the world as it exists is instead focused on neither.
It is caught in its own black hole, where critical theory swallows all.
Editor’s Note: Hollywood, academia, and liberal elites are out of touch with the average American.
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