Critical psychology in South Africa: Applications, limitations, possibilities (original) (raw)

Critical psychology -to my mind at least -revolves around one central (and fairly basic) tenet -that psychology is a political tool. Bulhan makes this point at the beginning of his (1985) Frantz Fanon and the psychology of oppression, by means of a pointed comparison between the careers of Fanon and Verwoed: "The two men ... were psychologists who put to practice their profession in ways that made history and affected the lives of millions ... Verwoed was a staunch white supremacist, a Nazi sympathizer, an avowed anti-Semite, and a leading architect of apartheid ... Fanon, in contrast, was a relentless champion of social justice who, when barely 17 ... volunteered for the forces attempting the liberation of France from Nazi liberation" (p3). This is an important contribution to the socio-political history of psychology in that it leaves little doubt as to the political utility of psychology, as either instrument of oppression, or as potentially enabling means of progressive politics. One word of caution though: this comparison should not be taken to imply that psychology's involvement in politics is merely circumstantial, arbitrary, opportunistic. As Bulhan (1985) goes on to make abundantly clear, and as critical psychology should assert whenever possible, psychology is always -even in its most everyday and mundane forms -political. In many ways in fact, and depending on the radicalism of one's critique, this may be not only psychology's most important functiongenerating and cementing kinds of politics -but also the motivating objective behind its initial emergence as a disciplinary practice. [In this respect see particularly and , but also ].