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A Brief History of Psychology in South Africa

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Naidoo, A.V. (1996). Challenging the hegemony of Eurocentric psychology.  Journal of Community and Health Sciences, 2 (2), 9-16 Duncan , N., Stevens, G., & Bowman, B. (2004). South African psychology and racism: historical determinants and future prospects. In Hook, D ( eds ),  Critical psychology  (pp 360-389). Cape Town:  Juta  & Company Ltd.

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Why is it important to discuss the history of psychology in South Africa? This question allows us to engage with how the past comes to shape and influence the present. Knowledge production  =  the production of knowledge about psychology in South Africa, which informs how we practice psychology through teaching, research, psychotherapy, psychometric assessments etc.

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Naidoo (1996) argues that the history of knowledge psychology has produced, at an international and local level is: s teeped in  Western/Eurocentric values ; a nd, promotes a  positivist-empirical  mode of scientific investigation.  What does this mean?  What does it mean that, historically, psychology has produced knowledge that is Western/Eurocentric and based on positivism, and that this knowledge has been adopted universally, in South Africa and everywhere else.

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2 key characteristic features of psychological knowledge: Western/Eurocentric values  = knowledge that reflects the interests and ideas of white, heterosexual, middle class, and educated American and European societies. Positivist-empirical science  = knowledge is only considered scientific, valid, true and factual when it is produced under conditions that are observable, objective, highly controlled and quantified.

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What does psychology’s Western/Eurocentric and positivist knowledge mean for  you, and the social, cultural, economic and political context from which you come? Is the knowledge psychology produces relevant to your life, with respect to your race, gender, class position, sexuality, nationality, political views, religious affiliation, ethnicity etc.?

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For example,  mainstream psychology  which is taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels is loosely based on Western/Eurocentric values and a positivist model of scientific inquiry.  This means that psychology carries the tendency to  decontextualise   your experiences and subjectivities, should you fail to question and interrogate from where this knowledge comes, in the first place, and its usefulness for your current social reality.

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2 histories to consider: The history of psychology The history of South Africa 2  key  historical determinants that shaped South Africa: Racism Apartheid

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How did psychology fit into apartheid? Was psychology complicit in promoting apartheid and racism  or  did psychology challenge this system and its racist ideology?

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The history of psychology in South Africa can be divided in two important periods, which represent noticeable shifts in the political landscape of South Africa: South African Psychology pre-1994 South African Psychology post-1994

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The main features: South Africa pre-1994 – an apartheid state. Psychology took up a humanitarian role. Psychology’s authorisation of racism. Psychology documented white people’s lived experiences whilst ignoring black people.

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Psychology generated a racially skewed process of knowledge production and training. Psychology produced racially defined diagnostic systems – bantu hysteria versus depression. Psychology objectified black people as the negative ‘Other’. Psychology’s major concern – ‘poor white people’.

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Why did South African psychology  not resist  apartheid? South African psychologists’ indoctrinated into systems of knowledge & ideologies that left them little room to criticise and challenge racism. The majority of psychologists were white and middle class, and they benefitted from apartheid's racism.

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Black psychologist represented under 10% of registered psychologists, and so they did not have a significant number to create a strong resistance. The eugenics movement embraced and supported by psychology during apartheid = ideas that black people are genetically inferior to white people.

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The ‘Extension of the University Education Act No. 45 of 1959’ – access to the best universities in terms of funding and resources reserved for white students only. The psychology curriculum was complicit in reproducing racism

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The Psychological Institute of the Republic of South Africa had a say in the content and curriculum of psychology programmes at universities. The Publications Act No.42 of 1974 – banned more than 18 000 books from universities because they encouraged critical thinking that could challenge apartheid and racism.

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1994 – South Africa’s first ever democratic election. The end of apartheid and institutionalised racism. Post-1994 – a period of hope and much needed change. Expectations for psychology to implement changes to its practice.

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The main features: Psychology side-stepping the subject of race and racism. Reforming psychology – at a professional and institutional level.  Removing organised psychology from any ties with apartheid racism. The creation of new organisations –  PsySSA  (the Psychological Society of South Africa).

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Academic reform through research and publishing – shifting the production of knowledge to represent voices that were silenced, marginalised and excluded during apartheid. New forms of marginalisation: low rates of publishing from the minority of black academics in psychology; black academics stationed at disadvantaged universities where research and publication is not given priority; black academics burdened with unusually large volumes of students which left them little time for research and publishing. English the medium of publication which largely worked to exclude black academics because they were not first language speakers of English.

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The continued use of Western/Eurocentric knowledge in psychology. The  racialised  nature of professional psychology training programmes.

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In summary Substantial barriers remain in removing racist ideologies, which effect the practice of psychology.

A Brief History of Psychology in South Africa

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