This overview of psychology in South Africa presents a concise and historical account of its science and practice, from its early origins in the late nineteenth century to the present, and traces seminal influences on the discipline. It is a review of how psychology in South Africa developed over more than a century to become one of the most popular subjects in universities and an established and recognized profession, whose members play a variety of roles in the South African polity and larger society. The impact that apartheid racism had on key aspects of psychology's development is traversed, and the influences that previous ruling party politics had on professional psychological organizations are delineated. The unification of psychology under the Psychological Society of South Africa, a few months before the advent of democracy in South Africa, is explicated. The protection of the title of psychologist in law and certain other changes in the legislative environment, enabling a greater role for psychologists, are reported. The primary research sites for psychology and its funding and the main university psychology programs are described, as are the requirements for registration and licensure. The genesis and the importance of the work of internationally acclaimed South African psychologists, such as J. Wolpe and A. A. Lazarus, are contextualized. With the increased participation of progressive black psychologists in leadership and research in the past two decades, a transformed psychology has the potential to play a significant role in addressing human issues confronting South Africa.
In this concatenated overview, the development of psychology in South Africa is traced from its origins in the late 19th century to the present. The seminal influences on the science and practice of psychology of the racialized polity and the responses to the prevailing regimen are also explored. The significant events in the patinated layers of psychological discourse and consequent policies in these constrained circumstances are traversed. Despite the nonracial era occasioned by the formation of the Psychological Society of South Africa three months before the advent of democracy under Nelson Mandela in 1994, the profession of psychology remains demographically skewed. Nevertheless, psychology in the current democratic dispensation enjoys a high profile and is actively engaged in ongoing and reflexive self-examination to ensure that it is more accessible and truly serves humanity. If Africa is psychology's last frontier, the critical denouement of the various issues confronting psychology in the southern tip of the African continent will provide a positive growth path that is likely to merit attention beyond its borders.
Despite psychology being one of the most popular areas of study at South African universities (Academy of Science of South Africa [ASSAF], 2011), it faces an identity crisis. This crisis resides in its constant cry for greater public recognition, it eschewing the affirmation that medicine enjoys, the battle between the scientific and academic fields on the one hand and the practice and professional domains on the other, its emergence from a fairly White racist ethos to a nascent and fast-changing democratic milieu, and its often uncritical emulation of western precepts to the denial of its patent African context. "South Africa and its psychology are anomalies" (Cooper & Nicholas, 2012). 1 South Africa (SA), located on the southern tip of the African continent, is simultaneously-perhaps erroneously-regarded as the gateway to Sub-Saharan Africa and yet quite unlike most African countries, where indigenous traditions are quite apparent. The colonial nexus is noticeable everywhere in SA and permeates sociocultural expression. One of only three countries in the world to call itself by a geographic name (the others, Central African Republic and the world's newest country, Southern Sudan, are also African), SA represents an amalgam of its various cultures, with Western traditions prevalent in all spheres of society and even in the remotest rural village. This is particularly true of psychology in SA (Cooper & Nicholas, 2012), which has been affected by European-and more recently by American-traditions. The centuries (since 1652) of Dutch and English hegemony and dominance in all spheres of the polity have deracinated SA from its essential African historicity and, in many respects, have rendered it a pathetic European clone. Visitors would be forgiven for being beguiled by Article Cooper 213 most of SA's major cities into feeling that they were not really in a part of Africa but in a part of Europe or America; the search for authentic African food and clothing would be quite an adventure. Perhaps the major give away would be the proximity of the African bush or other endemic natural representations of the unique African landscape. South African Demographics Bruited as one of the most multicultural societies on earth and the "Cradle of Humanity," SA comprises 51.8 million inhabitants (Statistics South Africa [StatsSA], 2012), of which 41.0 million (79.2%) are Black African, 4.6 million (9.0%) are "Coloured," 2 4.5 million (8.9%) are White, and 1.2 million (2.5%) are of Indian origin. Only 4.4% of the population were born outside SA. Some 5.3% of the population is 65 years of age or older and 38.9% is younger than 20 years of age, with 29.2% being below the age of 15 years, and 51.3% are female. The overwhelming majority of South Africans are Christian (79.8%), followed by Muslims (1.5%), Hindus (1.2%), people with African traditional beliefs (0.3%), and Jews (0.2%); 15.1% of the population indicate no religion and 1.4% refuse to state their religion (StatsSA, 2005). Of South Africa's 11 official languages, isiZulu is the ...
We intentionally chose to title our closing comment as "Bridging" because we feel that the discussions and ideas captured in this issue will serve as a bridge to or scaffolding for a deeper and varied discourse about African/Black psychology. Parenthetically, we also believe that in liberating the discourse, we must first "grasp the ungraspable." In this regard, we note that in his The Philosophy of History (1956), the great German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Frederick Hegel asserted in a most authoritative and emphatic way that
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