South African Psychology and Racism: Historical Determinants - PDF

South African psychology and racism: Historical determinants and future prospects Chapter INTRODUCTION...

South African psychology and racism: Historical determinants and future prospects Chapter INTRODUCTION Two basic aspects of critical psychology As way of beginning we might isolate two fundamental aspects of critical psychology. One is an issue of content - a question of subject-matter, the other Afr ic an p sy ch ology- a nd is a means of access - a matter of approach. To deal with the content issues south first, critical psychology, is, at its most basic, about the power-relationships inants constituted by psychology as a form of knowledge and practice. In the South m : His t orical de ter m racis African context, this means that a pre-eminent objective of critical psychology is the critique of how the knowledge, the practice and the organisational struc­ and future prospects ture of psychology itself came to perpetuate what must be South Africa's most characteristic form of power: racism. This, after all, is the particular form of man social asymmetry that has come to condition virtually all aspects of social exis­ ns & Brett Bow Social asymmetry: Garth Steve Norman Duncan, tence in our country. The second aspect of our attentions here concerns the lack of balance or symmetry in question of approach, a method of critical psychology. And the particular relations of social means of access we have in mind here, as exemplified in the works of Rose power. role an d evolution has (l991, 1995), is that of historical overview and, more precisely, an overview of ?syc:ol og 's historical '[O]rgan ised profess10nal. pments within th institutional history of South African psychology. In other words, we are develo rore. sooo-h·storical often mimicked and m1r historicaljunctures, and here concerned not only with the kinds of knowledge produced by the disci­ ; eren t t d11ff. · n social fiormat1on. a 1' of.South African soCJety the South A;;nca as a m,crocosm. pline - although this is, of course, of overwhelming importance - we are in this way has acted ren t poin ts m time. oncerned also with its own formal and informal conditions of restraint, at diffe oppression and omission, that is, South African psychology's own inner Suffla et al (2001, 28) politi In view of the above approach, then, this chapter traces the history and trajectory of South African psychology, focusing on its ideological complicity with the broader racist conditions and discourses that characterised apartheid ·outh Africa. After examining the history of South African psychology as both EARNING OUTCOMES mstrument and outcome of the apartheid state, this chapter interrogates the sho uld be able to: degree to which South African psychology may be extricated from the racism By the end of this chapter, you o gy and racis m hist rical inte r ace betw een South African psychol overtly identifiable in its formative years. The possibilities for the establish­ t> Explo re the o. nt of a 'new' South African psychology as a discipline of equity and d uring the pre-apart heid pe od c_ontribu­ that influ enc ed S uth African psycho lo gy's active years ration rather than as an instrument of continued exclusionary practice o rs the apartheid t> Understand the fact. tion of rac1s t i·ct eo lo gies d uring rm the concluding discussions of the· chapter. tio ns to and ong01ng perpetua. g South African psycholo gy at the. prospects for d racia. lisrn. t> Examine the future pr fessi onal level s. o rganisatio nal, acad emic and o hecome apparent in the chapter, there are a great many types of racism, great number of ways in which racism can be implemented. Further­ because of its multi-faceted and constantly changing manifestations, d fie easy description. To make matters more complicated still, there > different ways of approaching and understanding the subject of many of which have been reviewed from a psychological perspective by 93). As uch it is important that, right form the outset of this chapter, 361 360