A decolonial psychology requires both a critical analytic for the evaluation of psychological states under coloniality and a direction for disruption of these states. In the following, I propose that Gayatri Spivak’s deconstructive analytic of the subaltern condition can be developed to provide both. Through the discursive formations of classical Freudian and relational psychoanalytic readings of transference resistance and the relational matrix, the condition of subalternity is reproduced across psychotherapeutic orientations in treating the postcolonial subject. As a direction to disrupt this condition, Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and the hegemonic provide a conceptualization for decolonial psychological praxis. From this conceptualization, three points are provided: (a) patients must have established lines of power (i.e., hegemonic legitimacy) within the institutionality of psychology; (b) patients must have movement organization re-presenting and representing the counter-hegemony to the psychological establishment; and (c) patients must have lines of communication between the singular subject and both the institutionality of psychology and the broader patient movement organization. As a concretization of this conceptualization, the work of Fanon is briefly reviewed as directed toward singular subjective and networked collective action against social and psychological colonialism.
Across industries, labor activism and unionism has emerged as a powerful force from the crisis of COVID-19 to advocate for job security, workplace safety, and public policy. However, social workers have largely not participated in this movement. In order to better represent social worker interests, unionizing the social work labor force is essential.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, clients and therapists alike are apt to experience an increase in existential anxiety. Irvin Yalom formulates existential anxiety as the result of a confrontation with the givens of death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness. As a formulation for COVID-19 pandemic anxiety, Yalom’s formulation provides a means to grasp the existential crisis facing the individual wherein the ability to cope with anxiety and despair is overwhelmed. As a prophylactic for the paralyzing existential terror and despair faced through the existential threat of COVID-19, Albert Camus’ concepts of the absurd and the absurd hero are developed as a means to embrace the absurd and tragic character of the COVID-19 pandemic. The absurd and tragic heroes Sisyphus and Dr. Bernard Rieux become role models for the pandemic therapist.
People in carceral institutions are at increased risk for COVID-19 infection. Applying critical race theory to the problem of COVID-19 provides tools to analyze the risk of infection and evaluate the public health response within the imprisoned, jailed, and detained population. On the surface, this is due to factors related to a lack of hygiene products, an inability to physically distance, a low quality and inaccessible health care, and poor health. However, at root, the increased risk for infection is directly linked to the legacy of slavery and colonization within the history of US prisons, jails, and detention centers. As a solution to the crisis of COVID-19 and prevention of future pandemics within prisons, jails and detention centers, a critical race orientation provides reason and direction for mass decarceration and racial justice.
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