My Role in the Decolonization of Psychology

My Role in the Decolonization of Psychology
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My Role in the Decolonization of Psychology
Introduction
Oppression, poverty, and suffering seem to be aspects of the world that never change despite our democratic progress and realization of an expansive array of human rights. Poverty, for instance, is at the center of many problems (Knifton & Inglis, 2020): increased health risks, homelessness, substance abuses, and emotional and physical abuses within and without households. In other words, poverty may as well be one of the major causes of conditions that drive people into seeking psychological assistance. Since it never seems to end, across history, it is the major cause of inequality. Within public discourse, inequality is often discussed in refence to sectors like education and health. However, I think inequality has infiltrated the field of psychology starting with its inclination to Western society’s notions and perceptions to people’s inability to afford mental health services. Thus, in my opinion, the first step towards making psychology inclusive is decolonization.
The Balance Between Solving Societal Issues and Offering Mental Health Service to Individuals
As we know it, psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those that influence behavior in a given context. Its purpose is to influence, change, or control behavior and to make meaningful, constructive, positive, and lasting changes in people's lives and influence their behavior for the better (Avais, Wassan, & Chandio, 2014). Thus, psychology is extensive, from organizations, mental health facilities, and community health. For me, this is where the dilemma is; we are coming from a history where people have been oppressed and continue to suffer through poverty and inequalities. We cannot deny that the legacy of slavery or issues like colonization and apartheid is not still with us. Indeed, Halloran (2018) argues that African Americans' poor social and psychological well-being can be linked to cultural trauma: a posttraumatic slave syndrome. Duane et al. (2020) talk about the concept of collective trauma: a blow to the primary tissues of social life that damages the bonds of attaching people and impairing their prevailing sense of community.
In other words, people are experiencing mental health issues as a result of wider societal problems such as inequality. Personal trauma, cultural trauma, and inter-generation trauma are part of what mental health providers are dealing with and is the essence of community psychology. It is clear that history of oppression, chronic poverty, and suffering is still with us (Tetzlaff, 2022) and affects mental health outcomes. Indeed, the current Covid-19 pandemic has worked to expose the world's inherent inequalities highlighted by how some countries have stockpiled vaccines while others have primarily unvaccinated populations (Fortuna, Tolou-Shams, Robles-Ramamurthy, & Porche, 2020). Understanding the root causes of mental illness requires critical inquiry into how broader relations of subjugation and domination play themselves out in the day-to-day life of people. I believe the role of mental health providers is not restricted to helping individuals or our increasingly diverse communities. We have a bigger role in shaping the risk factors that exacerbate mental health problems within our communities. To effectively do this, however, we must assess the current constructs within the field of psychology with an aim of making it more inclusive in regard to diversity.
There is a long history of psychology, its origin, and development concerning communities outside the sphere of the Western world. Phycologists drew history from eugenics and theories like social Darwinism. Such theories espoused the hierarchical categorization of people into groups, where Africans are posited as the least human of all CITATION Sun172 \l 2057 (Bhatia, 2017). Thus, when we see things like racism, gender violence, and oppressive working conditions, we should recognize that they come from ideas that have crafted a world in which we have come to legitimize and justify. In the US for instance, systemic discrimination, a result of slavery and racism, continues to subjugate some communities such as people of color CITATION Hal182 \l 2057 (Halloran, 2018). The emergence of the Black Lives Matter Movement is a sign that as much as things have changed, they have largely remained the same. The same way inclusivity is demanded across politics, education, and healthcare access is the same way it should be captured within the realms of psychology. No doubt, psychology has evolved but decolonization is needed to make more inclusive so that those who deserve it the most have access.
In recent years, Americans report having unmet mental health problems. The main reason for this problem is that they cannot afford mental health services. According to Conroy, Lin, and Ghaness (2020), some of the reasons people are not getting psychological assistance include costs, assumption that they can handle the problem without help, lack of knowledge on where to seek help, and not having time. Between 2008 and 2018, the percentage of people cited costs increased from 39% to 45% (Conroy, Lin, & Ghaness, 2020). Looking at these figures concerning poverty and inequality, it can be inferred positively that minority groups and people of color are the least likely to seek mental health services. Alang (2019) argued that those who need it the most are once least likely to get it. If this is the case, then as psychologists, we play a role in furthering inequality in the world at a mental level.
Inclusivity for a Diverse Community
Therefore, psychologists were responsible for the oppressed: those whose history, culture, and social perceptions have been disparaged, destroyed, and stigmatized. Those suffering from intergeneration trauma and collective trauma and those who need mental services the most but cannot access them. This is where community psychology comes in. Community psychology refers to the branch of psychology that focuses on a person’s interaction with the environment and the influence of society on the individual’s and community functioning (Kloos et al., 2021). It focuses on how social institutions and issues influence individuals, groups, and organizations. According to Thomas and Zuckerman (2018), community psychology has roots in social change. Social change is how human interactions and relationships transform culture and social institutions over a period. Psychologists for Social Change is a network of applied psychology through which members advocate for the use of psychology in political action and policy development and implementation CITATION Klo21 \l 2057 (Kloos, et al., 2021). In other words, social change is where psychologists can contribute to solutions to problems like poverty, discrimination, inequality, and collective or intergenerational trauma.
In my view, there are many roles I can play as a mental health provider pushing for social change. However, based on the discussion, I envision my mission to decolonize. This mission is two-facet. On the one hand, I realize that there is a need for the decolonization of psychology as a field of science. As already mentioned, while it has developed and expanded, psychology has its roots in the Western world. The current approaches to mental health problems are largely Western oriented; a situation which fails to capture the unique circumstances of people from other areas of the world who contribute to America’s diversity. Therefore, there is a need for changes in the field that capture these differences as means to making mental health services more inclusive.
Enhancing Inclusivity Through Decolonization of Psychology
Decolonization refers to the process of undoing colonial structures that continue to shape people’s thoughts and perceptions in the modern world. While the term has often been used to describe countries that have gained independence and are working to be self-sufficient, it has also been e...