Critical Psychology Seminar - Decolonization and Mental Health

Introduction

• Presenter: Maria Laguna
• Focus of the seminar: Decolonization and its impact on mental health.

Key Concepts

Colonialism vs. Coloniality

• Colonialism:
  • Political/economic control by one nation over another.
  • Imposes will and exploits resources for the colonizer’s benefit.
• Coloniality:
  • Long-standing power patterns from colonialism.
  • Influences culture, labor, relationships, and knowledge.
  • Maintained through education, cultural patterns, and self-perception.

Forms of Coloniality

1. Coloniality of Knowledge:
   • Emphasizes technical rationality from Europe.
   • Discredits experiential or spiritual forms of knowledge.
2. Coloniality of Power:
   • Classifies socially based on race.
   • Links whiteness with power.
   • Psychology and psychiatry as tools of control.
3. Coloniality of Being:
   • Neoliberal emphasis on individualism.
   • Lack of communal focus.

Importance of Understanding Colonization

• Liberation involves naming the structures that dominate.
• Scientific Racism: Psychology's origins linked to oppressive views.
  • Pathologizes spiritual/cultural phenomena.
  • Freud’s unconscious compared to "primitive" minds.

Structures Promoting Colonial Thinking

• Orientalism:
  • Eurocentric assumptions about the Middle East as static and undeveloped.
  • Differentiates Western superiority.

Decolonization: What It Entails

1. Decoupling from Eurocentric Logics
2. Undoing Practices Reinforcing Colonial Power
3. Redistributing Power to Oppressed Communities

Contemporary Examples of Colonial Exploitation

• COVID-19 vaccine distribution inequities.
• Travel restrictions on South African nations.
• Racism towards Asian communities labeled as cultural inferiority.

Mental Health and Decolonization

Colonial Mentality

• Internalized cultural inferiority.
• Phenomenon like imposter syndrome reflect this mentality.

Frantz Fanon’s Contributions

• Colonialism as cultural and psychological domination.
• Trauma and neurosis linked to racist and oppressive environments.

Approaches to Decolonizing Mental Health

1. Understanding Experiences of Discrimination
2. Intersecting Oppressions
   • Race, education, gender, class, etc.
3. Creating a Future-Oriented Psychology
   • Focus on social justice and healing.

Healing from Intergenerational Trauma

• Move beyond individual coping to community healing.

Historical Trauma Model

• Developed by Maria Yellow Horse Braveheart.
• Steps: Understand, release, transcend trauma.

Testimonio and Politicized Narrative Therapy

• Testimonio: Literature from marginalized perspectives.
• Politicized Narrative Therapy:
  • Connects personal distress to broader social struggles.

Body Mapping Technique

• Embodied approach to violence and coloniality.
• Encourages recognizing personal experiences through sensory exercises.