Liberation Psychology

The following article is the first English translation of an article written by Bishop Proano of Ecuador on the Role of Christianity in the Process of Development.  It was published in El Salvador in 1975.  I publish it here as a resource for anyone who wishes to use it.

Sociohistorical analysis of four words commonly used in the language of Western mental health, Indigenous, intelligence, disorder, and depression reveal a “Domination Code” masking past and present professional complicity of the U.S. and global mental health system in the oppression of Indigenous peoples. A historicity is offered of concepts of inferior Indigenous intelligence and current pseudoscientific ideologies within Western biological psychiatry dominating WHO’s mhGAP (Mental Health Gap Action Programme) exported to these communities. mhGAP’s cultural hegemony is achieved through Western mental health ideologies that decontextualize, depoliticize, minimize, and marginalize the lived experience of cultural oppression on health and wellbeing. This program appears to violate the spirit of Article 23 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people.
Keywords: Indigenous, Native American, American Indian, First Nations, Aboriginal, Mental Health, Behavioral Health, Eugenics, Liberation Psychology, World Health Organization, WHO, mhGAP, Mental Health Gap Programme

Since the 1960s, there has been an increased interest in relationships between psychology, spirituality, and social action. The emergence of transpersonal psychology as an acknowledged field of study points to the interest in exploring connections between psychological well-being and spiritual development (Assagioli). More recently, a renewed interest in liberation spirituality, or the relationship between spirituality and social action, also is taking place in the form of spiritual activism .

Psychopathy, which literally means an illness of the mind, has been largely a mystery throughout history. Although damage caused by psychopaths far exceeds other mental disorders such as schizophrenia, general understanding of it has remained incomplete, dominated with sensationalized portrayals in film and news media. While psychiatric institutions have been hesitant to recognize psychopathy with clear diagnostic criteria, researchers such as Hervey M. Cleckley in The Mask of Sanity (1941) and Robert D. Hare with his Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (1991) recognized it as a personality disorder and established a clear clinical definition for it. In recent years, as the influence of psychopathy has grown, their observation expanded beyond prison populations and psychiatric patients. The author in this paper aims to further the theory by examining its intrusion into everyday life. Primary objectives are threefold: (1) to explore the core of psychopathy, (2) elucidate its manifestations through examining destructive patterns that emerge in romantic and interpersonal relationships and 3) to understand its deeper implication for society at large.

Resumo: Este artigo visa abordar desafios que estão colocados dentro do contexto das Políticas de Ações Afirmativas na área da Educação, que entraram em vigor no Brasil desde 2003, mais especificamente a Lei 10.639/2003 e 11.645/2008. A ideia central é analisar criticamente que nós, brasileiros, tivemos, e ainda temos, uma educação das relações étnico-raciais estruturada pela perspectiva eurocêntrica colonial, que gera nossa profunda desigualdade social. Além disso, visa trazer reflexões no sentido de repensar a educação das relações étnico-raciais num sentido de respeito e valorização da pluralidade e diversidade da nação brasileira. O trabalho aborda criticamente o eurocentrismo, o racismo, o projeto da sociedade moderna, a produção de conhecimentos que forja a colonização mental; bem como encaminha uma reflexão sobre a necessidade de práticas sociais que gerem processos educativos que desnaturalizem a inferioridade de não-brancos e promovam a descolonização mental. As análises estão voltadas para a realidade do sistema de Educação, educadores e psicólogos. Abstract: This article aims to address the challenges that lie within the context of the Affirmative Action Policies in the area of Education, which came into force in Brazil since 2003, specifically Law 10.639/2003 and 11.645/2008. The central idea is to critically analyze that we Brazilians had and still have an education of ethnic-racial relations structured by the colonial Eurocentric perspective that generates our deep social inequality. In addition, it aims to bring reflections to rethink the education of ethnic-racial relations in a sense of respect and appreciation of the plurality and diversity of the Brazilian nation. The work critically addresses Eurocentrism, racism, the design of modern society, the production of knowledge that forges the mental colonization, as well as a reflection on the need for social practices that generate educational processes that denaturalize the inferiority of nonwhites and promote mental decolonization. We focused or analysis on the reality of the education system, educators and psychologists.

In this article we sketch the development, current status and future prospects of critical psychology in South Africa. We review critical psychology initiatives across a number of domains, including professional and activist organisations, university courses and pro grammes, conferences, and publication initiatives. In each case we show how develop ments in critical psychology reflected and contributed to broader social processes as South Africa emerged from apartheid. We also trace the links between local critical psychology groupings and the international critical psychology movement. Finally, we draw attention to areas (such as mental health activism, forensic psychology and community psychology) where South African critical psychologists have been relatively inactive or have played a politically ambiguous role. We conclude with suggestions for making critical psychology theory and practice relevant, not only to academic psychologists, but also to all who have a stake in South African psychology.

Psychology's phenomenal growth in the twentieth century stemmed in part from the alliances it formed with powerful bureaucratic elites. The discipline's proximity to power, however, meant not only that it could be co-opted ideologically but also that it could collude with oppressive regimes to enhance its own prestige. Project CAMELOT is one example where psychologists were willing to cooperate with the United States military in the service of a foreign policy that terrorized Latin America. The discipline also thrived under the Nazis with psychologists heavily involved in meeting the operational needs of the Wehrmacht. Afrikaner psychologists in South Africa formed a close association with the apartheid state in both ideological and practical terms. More recently, the involvement of the American Psychological Association in a torture scandal has drawn attention once again to the discipline's potential for collusion with institutional powers. In historiographic terms, some will take issue with the delivery of moral judgments when documenting the history of Psychology. However, the writing of history does not preclude such judgments, especially at a time when the exercise of power permeates disciplinary, institutional, and social life.

Central to understanding the zeitgeist of contemporary psychology is its denial and avoidance of the "social" realm-more specifically, it struggles to attend to and conceptualize the importance of social context, social (in)justice, oppression, and their link to social identity and mental health. Ego psychology and its link to Western philosophies and individualism has been the driving force of modernity, and it has gone to great lengths to devalue affect, the fluidity of identity, human interconnection, and the impact of social context and material conditions on consciousness. By focus-ing on cognition and neurology and ignoring affect and the social realm, we have also inadvertently ignored issues related to embodiment, morality, ideology , politics, and issues related to power-particularly how these influence mental health. In this chapter, I aim to provide guidance on how to conceptualize ourselves as a crossroads during a therapeutic encounter-how we can think of ourselves as intersections between consciousness, material conditions, and social context. I discuss the experience of social identity and how it is influenced by power, oppression, and conflict. I also highlight how intersectional feminism and postcolonial theory may help us attend to the complexities of social identity in therapy, such that individuals are always understood within a larger collective. I challenge our tendency to advocate for a multicultural psychology dissociated from the oppressive social

This article explores the ontology of human personhood embedded within liberation psychology scholarship.  With particular emphasis on the work of Paulo Freire, Ignacio Martín-Baró and Maritza Montero this analysis seeks to shed light upon Latin American liberation psychology as paradigmatic of the articulation of the theory and practice of liberation psychology as it continues to develop.  The importance of a well articulated ontology of human personhood is supported throughout this work by Martin and Sugarman’s (2003) developmental theory of situated agentic personhood.  In exploring foundational texts in liberation psychology scholarship we find a strong link to Marxist conceptions of personhood and agency.  This interdisciplinary heritage claimed by liberation psychology continues to support an understanding of personhood as agentic, willful and not only capable of socio-political action but dialectically linked to such action as necessary for personal change.  This ontology, it is argued, has been essential in the development of liberation psychology practices worldwide. 
Keywords: conscientization, ontology, personhood, consciousness, liberation psychology, Marx.

Este informe considera si hay psicologías de la liberación fuera de América Latina. Primero se establece una aproximación a la psicología de la liberación desde la obra de Ignacio Martín-Baró, en términos de su vinculación con otras corrientes de la praxis latinoamericana, la concientización, el realismo crítico, una orientación realmente social, y su eclecticismo metodológico. Entonces hace una mirada sobre psicologías que respondieron a la problemática de la opresión y la exclusión en algunos países seleccionados: Sudáfrica, Filipinas, Nueva Zelandia, Irlanda y Gran Bretaña. Concluye que sí existen versiones de la psicología de la liberación fuera de América Latina y además que hay mucho que compartir y aprender entre las distintas regiones donde surgieron esas psicologías libertadoras. En este sentido, se puede hablar de una segunda psicología de la liberación, no definida exclusivamente por la realidad latinoaméricana sino por un marco "analéctico", donde el otro, el oprimido, construye, junto con el especialista, una praxis libertadora realizada en la comprensión y la acción, para transformar la realidad vivida.

In the Gudyargarbha tantra there is this most wonderful verse. Appearances, sounds, and thoughts are the diety, mantra and the state of dharmakaya. What this wonderful language brings forward into our awareness is the amazing understanding that self liberation is the direct experiencing of the appearing of appearances.

To articulate Liberation Acupuncture as a particular and distinct school of thought is a somewhat challenging undertaking. Liberation Acupuncture is a development of Community Acupuncture (CA), and for a long time the acupuncture profession in the West has seemingly regarded CA as a kind of short-version, half-assed sort of therapy, good for relieving stress and not much more. But LA has its own perspective, its own logic, its own agenda. To understand it, some common assumptions of the acupuncture professional and academic viewpoints must be discussed.

Although C.G. Jung  was deeply moved by his encounters with indigenous people , finding those encounters immensely creative, there has been an astonishing lack of dialogue between indigenous people and Analytical Psychology. This  talk is an attempt to recover some of what we have not known about Jung's encounter at Taos and explains why it is important.

من أهم أدوات نظريات علم النفس السيكودينامية هي المصطلحات التي تفسر لنا أنماط العلاقات الانسانية وآليات الدفاع التي تساعد الفرد على الحفاظ على التوازن الداخلي. من أجل الاستمرار في الوجود في عالم يفرض واقع ومبادئ تتعارض أحيانًا مع الرغبات والدوافع الداخلية. تتسم التجربة الفلسطينية تحت الاستعمار الاستيطاني الصهيوني باستخدام العديد من الآليات الدفاعية بين المستعمر والفلسطيني.

The work of Argentinian-Mexican philosopher Enrique Dussel is presented in outline, focusing on his intellectual history as a thinker from the global periphery. We explore his reconstruction of the history of modernity and critique of Eurocentrism, his reconstruction of the later Marx, his concepts of analectics and trans-modernity, and his ethical framework. Finally we consider his relevance for psychology in the context of the debate over modernism, indicating some features of a Dusselian, transmodern psychology.

The primary research question is how degrowth and psychology can influence each other. To satisfy this query, I review scholarly literature that defines, describes, and finds commonalities between mainstream psychology and degrowth in order to problematize both. Conventional psychology and degrowth are classified as distinct fields of inquiry and praxis, and used to critique each other. The methodology consisted of a literature review of 1,714 articles using four academic search engines (PubMed, PsycNet, ProQuest, and CORE) and the bibliography of 38 required readings for the Foundations of Degrowth module of a graduate political ecology program held at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Data that resulted from the Rapid Evaluation Assessment (REA) showed that there is no mention of degrowth from within the scholarly psychology literature, but mention of Community Psychology (CP) and its offshoot, Critical Community Psychology (CCP) and degrowth from a non-psychology journal. This finding provides seeds that would spur diversity within the common space both fields share.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the intersections of politics and psychology by examining the way Native Americans use land and education activism to heal psychologically from the effects of historical trauma. Its scope was to underline how important it is to not divorce psychology from its political and cultural context. The study operationalizes historical trauma using the findings of Whitbeck et al. (2004) and Brave Heart, Duran, and Duran (1998). In the study, I examined the way Native American activists articulate historical trauma in their motivations through different case studies which draw on activist movements since the 1960’s. I then analyze Native American activism in light of the political liberation theories of Paulo Freire and Alschuler’s psychopolitics of liberation. This study concludes that Native Americans use political praxis in a two-pronged method: goal-oriented and process-oriented, and that the processes used are employed to alleviate the psychological suffering of historical trauma.

This article discusses the psychological violence at the heart of "dialogue initiatives" in the Israel-Palestine "conflict." This article focuses as an example one program called Moving Beyond Violence, that documents the work of Combatants for Peace.  Created by Iriss Singer, the program invites relational psychoanalyst Jessica Benjamin to analyze the experience of two figures, Itimar Shapira (a Jewish Israeli) and Bassam Aramin (a Palestinian from the West Bank). In examining the application of her theory of "the Moral Third" and "Third Space" (and "doer and done to"),  this article demonstrates how "dialogue initiatives" (although well-meaning) act a means to legitimate the historical and subjective grievances of the Palestinian people. In turn, these initiatives, in fact, work to establish an "extractive introjection" (in Bollas' words) or a "colonial introjection" (in Lara Sheehi's words), thereby robbing the Palestinian partner in these dialogues of their humanity, historical rights, and demand for true reparation and repair.

This dissertation investigates anti-racist feminist consciousness development and solidarity practices among sixteen activist White men. The interviewees were selected based upon a nomination process by anti-racist feminist activists. We conducted life story interviews exploring turning points and influences on the interviewees’ paths to anti-racist feminist praxis. Interviewees also described their anti-racist feminist praxis, projects, and what solidarity means to them. A research team analyzed the interviews with the Listening Guide.

The Listening Guide is an approach to analyzing qualitative data that highlights voice and relationship. The results of the study indicate diverse patterns of life stories and trajectories with common threads of marginality, mentorship, community, and activism. Solidarity for the interviewees was both a social and psychological practice of challenging Whiteness and hegemonic masculinity at multiple levels of analysis.

Lastly, using the Listening Guide, we discerned the various social justice voices that the participants spoke with in grounding or justifying their activism, which highlights the complexities, challenges, and contradictions of solidarity from dominant group positions. We conclude with implications, limitations of this study, and future directions for research and application of these findings.

This article introduces an edition of the Annual Review of Critical Psychology made up of papers originally presented at the Second Conference of Marxism and Psychology held in Morelia, Mexico, from 9-11 August 2012. We begin by introducing Marxism as a resource for critical psychology, one that is uniquely positioned to link the refusal of psychology, which lies at the core of critical work in the discipline, to a broader refusal of social relations and forms of subjectivity under capitalism and the ideological role psychology itself plays in their reproduction. We then sketch a panoramic overview of critical and reconstructive encounters between Marxism and psychology in various contexts around the world ever since Marx's own reflections on the nature of the psyche, serving as a background to the equally diverse encounters with Marxist theory and politics in the articles making up this edition of the Review. Finally, we zone in on the immediate context of the conference itself, giving substance to the idea that a Marxist critical psychology is one that both inspires and is further developed from forms of collective action, which locates its critique of psychology and capitalism not just in theory, but in practices of everyday life that already articulate and live this double refusal.

Background
Creative arts interventions have clear benefits for recovery within forensic settings, supporting the development of personal meaning, introspection, emotional expression, self-esteem and social relationships (Clements, 2004; Gussak, 2007; 2017; Koch et al., 2015). The Graffiti Art and Wellbeing Project was an expressive arts intervention based in North London Forensic Service, and facilitated by the artist Ben Wakeling.  The project ran for twelve weeks, starting in a room on the ward and moving to an outdoor ‘therapy wall’ half way through the intervention. Here patients worked on a collaborative graffiti art work, which was documented with photographs, and then painted over each week. This evaluation aimed to understand the impacts of the Graffiti Art and Wellbeing Project on the individual patients, the staff and the unit as a whole.
Methods
A qualitative process evaluation was carried out, combining participant observation, documentation, interviews with staff (n=3) and a staff survey (n=14). The data were combined and analysed using Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
Findings
The response to the Graffiti Art and Wellbeing Project was overwhelmingly positive. It was seen by staff as an innovative intervention which offered multiple benefits to the patients taking part, and had a positive impact on the wider environment of the ward.
For patients who participated in the project, key benefits included being a way for participants to build a visual language within a trusting environment, to express emotions and facilitate self-reflection. The fact that the sessions built up slowly across several weeks meant that patients were supported to find ways to express and transform difficult emotions and experiences, in a way which felt familiar and culturally appropriate.
For staff, the project provided a chance to see beyond illness and offending, instead appreciating the creative side of patients. The project also offered an opportunity for positive risk taking, and changed the overall feel and look of the environment of the unit.
Recommendations
1. Graffiti Art and Wellbeing Project should be recommissioned
This evaluation overwhelmingly supports the effectiveness of the Graffiti Art and Wellbeing Project. We have found that the project was a successful intervention, There were multiple benefits for both patients and staff, and which stretched beyond those who directly took part in the project. We recommend that this project should be recommissioned, repeated and expanded.
2. Preserve the core elements of trust, imagination, and expression
Working from imagination, and using art as a modality to build and sustain trusting relationships emerged as key elements of the success of the project. The process of building up art engagement slowly was key to the success found in this evaluation - starting with ‘expressive roaming’ through visual expression, before graduating to working with graffiti. We recommend that any extension of the project keeps these values at the core of the project, recognising the key role of relationality in the work of the Graffiti Art and Wellbeing Project. The project needs to be facilitated from a place of respect, adapting to the needs of each individual, based on “deep and respectful observation” (Fals Borda, 2001: 33).
3. Longer time periods working with patients
The project was successful in building trust and developing self-reflection, enabling emotional expression for patients. Longer term work would enable patients to further explore and hone these skills and aspects of themselves, which are so crucial for enabling recovery and supporting desistance. We recommend repeated work in the same spaces on the wards, as well as longer term work with individual patients.
4. Permanent art studio space
A key element of the success of the project is the process of ‘expressive roaming’ through which patients are supported to develop their own visual language in the early part of the project. This is key to the early process of developing trusting relationships and emotional expression. A permanent or semi-permanent art space in the unit would provide a richer environment for this process and we would recommend finding a space to house a studio.
5. Training facilitators
We would recommend the expansion of the Graffiti Art and Wellbeing project to other services, as well as repeated work within North London Forensic Service. We recommend that Ben Wakeling be supported to train further facilitators in his approach. This training should focus on communicating the art-led ‘mode of engagement’ (Liebert et al, 2018) at the heart of the Graffiti Art and Wellbeing project – trust, imagination, and expression.
6. Opportunities for creativity and ownership
Key benefits from the project were found in the opportunities provided for patients to explore their creativity, and create a feeling of ownership over the space of the unit. These extended beyond the core sessions, for instance patients using their own sketchbooks, and photographs of the graffiti wall being exhibited on the ward. Staff could consider ways to embed some of these elements into the design and use of the space of the wards, enabling patients to see more of themselves in the environment in which they live. For example, staff could consider creating a dynamic wall in the ward where patients could choose art or images for the ward which change relatively regularly. We recommend that secure services prioritise providing more opportunities for patients to be supported in imaginative, creative activity in forms which are culturally relevant and close to their lives, such as found in this project.
 

This article introduces an edition of the Annual Review of Critical Psychology made up of papers originally presented at the Second Conference of Marxism and Psychology held in Morelia, Mexico, from 9-11 August 2012. We begin by introducing Marxism as a resource for critical psychology, one that is uniquely positioned to link the refusal of psychology, which lies at the core of critical work in the discipline, to a broader refusal of social relations and forms of subjectivity under capitalism and the ideological role psychology itself plays in their reproduction. We then sketch a panoramic overview of critical and reconstructive encounters between Marxism and psychology in various contexts around the world ever since Marx's own reflections on the nature of the psyche, serving as a background to the equally diverse encounters with Marxist theory and politics in the articles making up this edition of the Review. Finally, we zone in on the immediate context of the conference itself, giving substance to the idea that a Marxist critical psychology is one that both inspires and is further developed from forms of collective action, which locates its critique of psychology and capitalism not just in theory, but in practices of everyday life that already articulate and live this double refusal.

Liberation Social Psychology ( psicología social de la liberación , PSL ) ha sido desarrollada por un movimiento de psicólogos en América Latina durante la última década, y este artículo explora el contexto en el cual cr eció desde los trabajos de Ignacio Martín-Baró y su ulterior estudio por Maritza Montero, entre otros. En la PSL surgen conceptos clave que incluyen conscientización, realismo crítico, desideologización, marco
social, opción preferencial por las mayorías oprimidas y eclecticismo meto-dológico. La aplicación de la PSL se ha dirigido a tres áreas. Primero, se sugiere que la psicología comunitaria practicada en algunos lugares de América Latina refleja la PSL en su énfasis por la transformación social y el uso de métodos participativos. Segundo, el trabajo psicosocial
con víctimas de la represión estatal, enfocado en la sociedad, es consi-derado ejemplo paradigmático de la PSL. Por último, los análisis político-psicosociales de la realidad de los países latinoamericanos toman en cuenta, de manera diversa, sus principios y conceptos. Para concluir, se discuten
algunos retos que enfrenta la PSL .
Palabras clave : psicología social de la liberación, opresión, transformación.

Reconociendo el gran desarrollo que ha tenido en nuestro contexto centroamericano la llamada Psicología de la Liberación en los últimos años, este trabajo pretende dar una mirada profunda a los postulados gnoseológicos y meta epistemológicos de la obra del Ignacio Martín-Baró.  Nuestro análisis busca redirigir la fundamentación teórica de su propuesta hacia dimensiones más cercanas a teoría social crítica y alejándola de fundamentaciones teológicas.  En definitiva, es un intento por hacer una relectura de Martín-Baró a la luz de su posible ubicación en la teoría psicosocial actual.

This article will describe Liberation Psychology’s impact on the professional counseling field’s focus on social justice. The authors will describe Liberation Psychology’s roots in theology, the foundational principles of this theory, and specific examples of where Liberation Psychology has made an impact on the field of counseling. Finally, the authors will provide an illustration of this theory in practice, and discuss several key implications for Liberation Psychology’s implementation as a foundation for counseling for social justice.

In this article I explore the limitations of academic critical psychology, suggesting that it is a spent force, largely irrelevant to real problems of oppression and liberation.  An alternative approach which I characterise as ‘analectic critical psychology’ can be seen in the Latin American traditions of liberation psychology and community social psychology as well as in some developments in other regions.