Liberation psychology or liberation social psychology is an approach to psychology that aims to actively understand the psychology of oppressed and impoverished communities by conceptually and practically addressing the oppressive sociopolitical structure in which they exist. The central concepts of liberation psychology include: conscientization; realismo-crítico; de-ideologized reality; a coherently social orientation; the preferential option for the oppressed majorities, and methodological eclecticism.
History
Emergence
The core ideas of liberation psychology emerged in Latin America in the 1970s in response to criticisms of traditional psychology, social psychology specifically. Psychology was criticised for its 1) value neutrality; 2) assertion of universality; 3) societal irrelevance.
- View of science as neutral – The idea that science was devoid of moral elements was considered a flawed framework.
- Assertion of universality – Psychological theories were being produced based on research conducted primarily with white, middle class, undergraduate males. Liberationists questioned the notion that such principles were universal and therefore applicable to all individuals without regard to the consideration of contextual factors.
- Societal irrelevance – Psychology was viewed as failing to generate knowledge that could address social inequalities.
In response to these criticisms, psychologists sought to create a
psychological science that addressed social inequalities both in theory
and practical application. It is important to note that liberation
psychology is not an area of psychology akin to clinical, developmental,
or social psychology. However, it is more of a framework that aims to
reconstruct psychology taking into account the perspective of the
oppressed (Martín-Baró's "new interlocutor") so the discipline ceases
its (often unwitting) complicity with the structures that perpetuate
domination, oppression and inequality. Generally, people using this
framework would not call themselves "liberation psychologists", although
this term is sometimes used to refer to them.
The term "liberation psychology" (or psicología de la liberación) may have first appeared in print in 1976. It was later brought into widespread use by Ignacio Martín-Baró.
A number of other Latin American social psychologists have also
developed and promoted the approach, including Martiza Montero
(Venezuela), Ignacio Dobles (Costa Rica), Bernardo Jiménez Dominguez
(Colombia/Mexico), Jorge Mario Flores (Mexico), Edgar Barrero (Colombia)
and Raquel Guzzo (Brazil) among others.
Founder
The genesis of liberation psychology began amongst a body of psychologists in Latin America in the 1970s. Ignacio Martín-Baró is credited as the founder of liberation psychology, and it was further developed by others.
Martín-Baró was a Spanish-born Jesuit priest and social
psychologist who dedicated his work to addressing the needs of oppressed
groups in Latin America, and ultimately was assassinated as a result of
his work.
His project of constructing a psychology relevant to the oppressed
majorities of the American continent was therefore terminated
prematurely. The collection of some of his articles in the collection Writings for a Liberation Psychology is a seminal text in the field that discusses the role of psychology as socially transformative. Most of his work still remains untranslated into English. His two major textbooks, Social Psychology from Central America, and his other books
are published by a small University publisher, UCA editores in El
Salvador with the consequence that the breadth and depth of his work is
not well known even in Latin America.
Key concepts
The central concepts of liberation psychology include: concientización; realismo-crítico; de-ideologization; a social orientation; the preferential option for the oppressed majorities, and methodological eclecticism.
Concientización
The
intrinsic connectedness of the person's experience and the
sociopolitical structure is a fundamental tenet of liberation psychology
and is referred to as concientización, a term introduced by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire,
roughly translatable as the raising of politico-social consciousness.
In this process people become more conscious of themselves and their
lives as structured by the social reality of oppression, understood
structurally, and they thereby become social actors. They change as they
begin to act on their social circumstances. Understanding this
interconnectedness is of particular importance to understanding the
experiences and psychology of oppressed peoples, the power structure to
which they are subjugated, and the ways in which this subjugation
manifests in their behavior and psychopathology.
A social orientation
Liberation
psychology criticises traditional psychology for explaining human
behavior independently of the sociopolitical, historical, and cultural
context.
Martín-Baró argued that a failure of mainstream psychology is the
attribution to the individual of characteristics that are found in the
societal relations of the group. He argued that individual
characteristics are a result of social relations, and to view such
individualistically de-emphasizes the role of social structures,
incorrectly attributing sociopolitical problems to the individual.
Liberation psychology addresses this by reorienting the focus from an
individualistic to a social orientation. Using this framework, the
behaviour of oppressed people is conceptualized not through intrapsychic
processes, but as a result of the alienating environment.
The social orientation has a particular emphasis on understanding
the role of history in shaping current conditions, and the ways in
which this history resulted in the oppression of particular communities.
Within this orientation, critical examination of social power and its
structures is crucial. This is necessary in order to understand
political and social power as not being interpersonal, but part of a
society's institutional organization.
Preferential option for the oppressed majorities
The
development of a psychology that is "from" oppressed people rather than
"for" oppressed people is the aim of liberation psychologists.
Traditional psychology is understood as Eurocentric and is critiqued for
ignoring the unique experiences of oppressed individuals. Martín-Baró
made a similar argument, critiquing Latin American psychologists for
adopting Eurocentric psychological models that were not informed by the
social, political, and cultural environment of the impoverished and
oppressed, which was the majority of people in 1980s El Salvador.
Liberation psychology further criticizes traditional psychology
for its ivory tower approach to understanding phenomena, following
Martín-Baró's call for psychology to turn its attention from its own
social and scientific status to the needs and struggles of the popular
majority. Unlike traditional approaches, liberation psychology seeks to
re-situate the psychologist as part of the emancipatory process for and
with oppressed communities.
Realismo-crítico
Martín-Baró
contended that theories should not define the problems to be explored,
but that the problems generate their own theories. This idea is termed realismo-crítico. This is contrasted to the traditional approach of addressing problems based on preconceived theorization, idealismo-metodológico (methodological idealism). In realismo-crítico, theorization plays a supportive, but not fundamental, role. Martín-Baró's idea of realism-crítico should not be equated with the work of Roy Bhaskar on critical realism.
Although the two ideas are conceptually similar in some ways, they have
distinct meanings (hence the use of the term here in Spanish, rather
than attempting a direct translation).
De-ideologized reality
Martín-Baró
emphasized the role of ideology in obscuring the social forces and
relations that create and maintain oppression: a key task of
psychologists then is to de-ideologize reality, helping people to
understand for themselves the nature of social reality transparently
rather than obscured by dominant ideology.
Ideology, understood as the ideas that perpetuate the interests of
hegemonic groups, maintains the unjust sociopolitical environment.
Alternatively, a de-ideologized reality encourages members of
marginalized populations to endorse ideologies that promote their own
interests and not those of the hegemony.
Martín-Baró's analysis of supposed Latin American fatalism and the myth
of the lazy Latino exemplified his approach as did his use of public
opinion surveys to counter the distortion that the then government and
military were presenting of the Salvadorian public's views on the war.
Methodological eclecticism
Research
with a liberation psychology framework incorporates methodologies from
diverse domains. Traditional methodologies, such as surveys and
quantitative analyses, are combined with more novel techniques for
psychology, such as qualitative analyses, photography, drama, and
textual analysis.
Applications
Community psychology
Ignacio Martín-Baró had opposed the introduction of community psychology to El Salvador, on the basis of the ameliorative (asistencialista')
approach and limited social perspective of then dominant North American
models. Nevertheless, community psychology, and especially the Latin
American variants (typically termed community social psychology) is one of the areas most influenced by the concepts of liberation psychology. Moreover, community social psychology in Latin America, which predates liberation psychology, also shares roots in the wider movement of Latin American critical and liberatory praxis (especially dependency theory, philosophy of liberation, liberation theology, critical or popular pedagogy).
Psychotherapeutic applications
Liberation psychology departs from traditional psychological
prioritization of the individual and the attribution of an individual's
distress to pathology within the individual. Liberation psychology seeks
to understand the person within their sociopolitical, cultural, and
historical context. Therefore, distress is understood not solely in
intrapsychic terms but in the context of an oppressive environment that
psychologises and individualises distress.
In a psychotherapeutic context, this removes the onus of psychological
distress solely from the individual and their immediate circumstances,
and reframes the origin of distress as the environment and social
structure to which persons are subjugated. Furthermore, this helps
people to understand their relationship to the power structure, and the
ways in which they participate in it.
In liberatory approaches to mental distress the therapy is only a step
towards the 're-insertion' of a person into their social milieu, social
action and their existential life-project.
Moving liberation psychology forward
Since
the late 1990s, international congresses on liberation psychology have
been held, primarily at Latin American universities. These congresses
have been attended by hundreds of professionals and students, and have
been crucial in perpetuating the social justice message of liberation
psychology.
Specific congress themes include human rights, social justice,
democratization, and creating models for liberation psychology in
psychological practice and pedagogy.
In recent years, these meetings have become increasingly focused on
addressing issues related to poverty and economic inequality.
International congresses on liberation psychology include:
- 1st, 1998 in Mexico City, Mexico
- 2nd, 1999 in San Salvador, El Salvador
- 3rd, 2000 in Cuernavaca, Mexico
- 4th, 2001 in Guatemala City, Guatemala
- 5th, 2002 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
- 6th, 2003 in Campinas, Brazil
- 7th, 2005 in Liberia, Costa Rica
- 8th, in Santiago de Chile
- 9th, 2008 in Chiapas, Mexico
- 10th, 2010 in Caracas, Venezuela
- 11th, 2012 in Bogotá, Colombia
- 12th, 2014 in Cusco, Peru congress web page
- 13th, 2016 in Cuernavaca, Mexico conference web page
Liberation psychology is not limited to Latin America. The term was used by Philippine psychologist Virgilio Enríquez, apparently independently of Martín-Baró. Elsewhere there have been explicit attempts to apply the approach to practice in other regions. In 2011 an English language liberation psychology network was established by the British psychologist Mark Burton.
It has an international membership which reflects interest in
liberation psychology from psychologists who do not read Spanish or
Portuguese. Moreover, not all liberatory praxis in psychology goes under the name "liberation psychology".
Examples
Black psychology
Some scholars argue that the liberation psychology framework is central to black psychology.
The interconnectedness of the personal and political, a fundamental
tenet of liberation psychology, is central to black psychology.
Furthermore, black psychology is thought of as inherently liberationist
as it argues that addressing the psychology of black persons
necessitates understanding, and addressing, the history and
sociopolitical power structure that has resulted in the global
oppression of individuals of African descent.
Proponents of black psychology operate within the social
orientation of liberation psychology, contending that Eurocentric
ideologies of traditional psychology lack relevance when dealing with
black communities. Therefore, an Afrocentric conceptualization that
recognizes the unique history of individuals of African-descent is
necessary when dealing with such communities. Using a liberation
psychology framework, black psychology argues that simply recognizing
the distinctiveness of the black experience is inadequate if the
psychological theorization used does not come from the communities to
which they are applied.
Such a position is consistent with Martín-Baró's assertion that the use
of Eurocentric psychological methods is incongruent with the lived
experiences of oppressed communities.
Liberation psychology and LGBT psychotherapy
Recent work in North America has sought to understand the applied use of liberation psychology in psychotherapy with LGBT
individuals. Unlike traditional psychotherapeutic interventions, this
approach reframes LGBT individuals' psychological issues as resulting
from an understandable incorporation of the homonegative attitudes characteristic of the social structures within which gay and transgender people live.
Traditional psychotherapy typically recognises the effect of
homophobia and its impact on LGBT people, but often fails to clear the
person of the blame for embracing such views. However, a liberationist
psychological approach aims to facilitate the freeing the individual of
the blame for adopting the homonegative views of the society. Instead,
the onus is on the social environment, understanding that persons are
themselves constituted as persons in their social context. Such an
approach understands 'psychological' issues as inextricably linked to
the societal context.
This may free the LGBT person from feeling flawed for harboring
homonegative ideas. They are then able to examine how they are a
participant in the social environment and the ways in which they can
take responsibility for future actions. Additionally, using the concept
of concientización, people can examine how changing themselves can challenge the oppressive nature of the larger sociopolitical system,
although in most liberation psychology there is a more dialectical
relationship between personal and social change where personal change
does not have to precede social liberation.
