ABSTRACT
Standing outside the mainstream canon of depth psychology are liberatory theorists who were schooled in depth psychology but whose experiences and work for justice and peace are nevertheless largely left out of its purview. As depth psychologists struggle to understand the impact of Eurocentrism and colonialism on their theories and practices, a turn to liberation psychology offers a needed set of alternate vantage points. Seeing from the perspectives of liberatory theorists such as Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire, Ignacio Martín-Baró, Marie Langer, and others helps us to better understand the Eurocentrism of depth psychology, including its relationships to colonialism, capitalism, and racism. Liberation psychology, rooted in an interdependent paradigm, asks us to mobilize psychology to join struggles for social, economic, racial, and environmental justice. To do so, our psychologies must be transformed into more transdisciplinary efforts to meet these challenges. Watkins gives examples of what such a reorientation looks like by addressing the psychosocial accompaniment of forced migrants, illustrating how the orientations offered by liberation psychology can affect both the “private” and the “public” practices of psychologically-minded practitioners.
