ABSTRACT
Psychological theories have both been embraced and rejected by postcolonial writers and critics. This chapter briefly surveys some of the earlier psychological approaches to colonization offered by the writers Octave Mannoni and Frantz Fanon. It will then examine a group of writers most commonly termed ‘trauma’ theorists – Cathy Caruth, Dominick LaCapra and Marianne Hirsch – considering the important possibilities created by recent psychological formulations for the ever-shifting terrain of postcolonial studies.
