Unsettling colonial mentalities in family therapy: Entering negotiated spaces

Abstract

This article discusses the settler colonial roots of family therapy, positing that much of what is considered the standard or ideal family form comes from colonialism.Utilising settler colonial theory as a guide, I identify how the colonial nations, built through the violent exclusion of Indigenous and exogenous peoples, utilised the family to further their goals. Rather than suggest settler colonialism was an historic event, I consider how it continues today, privileging white families of European descent. To move the conversation forward on how white therapists from majoritised cultures can engage with racialised clients, I describe the negotiated spaces as a meeting ground where therapists and clients navigate differing worldviews. In these negotiations, our clients trust us, and to be accountable to this trust, we can unsettle the influence of settler colonialism. To conclude this paper, I discuss four possible pathways to begin the complicated process of unsettling.

Unsettling the family sciences: Introducing settler colonial theory through a theoretical analysis of the family and racialized injustice

“…Conversely, enslaved women's reproductive capabilities became commoditized while they were simultaneously degendered in the process of becoming property (S. Hartman, 2016), and slavers extended their holdings and wealth by reproducing enslaved children through rape. These early formations in the colonies enabled campaigns against women's bodily sovereignty (Jordan, 2021), resulting in eugenicist‐based, classist, racist, and ableist discourses enacted in the emerging family professions (Jordan, 2022).…”

“…Eugenics—selective breeding to reduce undesirable traits (negative eugenics) and increase desirable ones (positive eugenics)—developed out of family studies on degenerative and achieving families (Jordan, 2022). Eugenicists concerned with differential birthrates of “desirables” (protestant, White, wealthy) and “undesirables” (catholic, immigrant, racialized) predicted an impending White “race suicide” (Kohlman, 2015, p. 18).…”

“…Scientists, thus, focused on reproducing “superior” persons, enlisting White families in “Better Babies” and “Fitter Families” contests (Kohlman, 2015). As public acceptance of positive eugenics grew, in the 1920s, scientists' work became accessible through the proliferation of marital clinics and relationship advice columns in magazines, launching early family studies professions (Jordan, 2022).…”

“If You Don’t Fight Like Hell, You’re Not Going to Have a Country”: An Intersectional Settler Colonial Analysis of Trump’s “Save America” Speech and Other Messages of (Non)belonging

“…Intersecting with settler colonial anti-immigration and anti-Indigenous discourses, mental acuity was a target for politicians seeking to limit the powers of the less “desired” classes (Jordan, 2022). In the 18th and 19th centuries, measurements of the skull and newly developed IQ tests were introduced to indicate human intelligence and argue against women’s suffrage and the abolition of slavery (Collins, 1998).…”

“…The fervor against diminished mental and physical abilities erupted during negative eugenic sterilization campaigns to constrain “unwanted” populations (Collins, 1998). At the same time, better babies and fitter family contests encouraged the standardization of positive eugenics to protect the White race (Jordan, 2022). This cultural legacy lives on through U.S. pageantry’s reliance on judging the quality of a woman by her looks (e.g., genetic expression), the intersections of patriarchal womanhood, and exclusive definitions of gender (Friedman, 2020).…”