From subalternity to hegemony: Resistance as the groundwork for a decolonial psychology.

Abstract

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.

From Latin America to refugees from Myanmar: Dialogue and disclosing subjectivities of domination, fetish, and care.

“…García’s (in press) work on polycentrism engages with Bhabha’s to disclose an understanding of tension and nuance in decolonial contexts. Last, Farr’s (2023) work that enables disclosure and thereby emancipation of subaltern voices.…”

“…Farr (2023) further discloses how personal and sociopolitical domains blend together and does so by discussing transference in psychoanalysis from Latin America. This work rests upon a discussion of the “relational matrix” where the patient transfers experience to the analyst, but Farr highlights how transference also entails resistance that means more than resisting the analyst’s direction.…”

“…Farr (2023) discloses the emancipatory possibilities by which the subaltern can achieve voice through resistance. A crucial claim is that the subaltern voice is found between opposing discourses of the patient and analyst when resistance manifests.…”

“…Farr’s (2023) discussion of transference and voicing the subaltern in a Latin American context revolves around the discussion of agency in a way that further discloses the emancipation of the subaltern in our work with refugees. A subaltern position is a peripheral voice that is lost and, more importantly, it involves the disappearance of the agent.…”

“…García’s (in press) work on polycentrism disclose an understanding about epistemologies of tension and nuance in decolonial contexts. Last, Farr’s (2023) work explores transference for the purpose of emancipation of subaltern voices. The purpose of this article was to introduce their work by showing how Latin American contexts extends well beyond their own scope.…”