Decolonial Psychology

This book is explosive in the way that fireworks are explosive; it dazzles with its fire, it illuminates dark places in psychology, it celebrates the light towards which we can all go. At a time when our discipline is teetering on the precipice where we can choose to go backwards towards the Eurocentric frameworks that have defined and restrained psychology since its inception, or allow ourselves to have the courage to join in the liberatory project of decolonizing our understanding of humans in every setting, through all possible intersectional lenses, this volume is our guidebook to the territory of this emerging, powerful paradigm. Essential reading for all of us; for those, like myself, decades in the field; for those who teach and train and do research; for those offering healing. Brava/o to editors and authors alike. -- Laura S. Brown, PhD, ABPP, independent practice; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle; and past president of APA Divisions 35, 44, 56 and Washington State Psychological Association
Comas-Díaz, Adames, and Chavez-Dueñas have aptly responded to an urgent call to examine past and current impacts of colonization on the discipline of psychology. The authors, in this significant volume, provide compelling information that is the basis for a sea change in how we approach theory, research, teaching, and practice. The authors’ rich examples bring to life the profound problems of colonization as well as the profound potential for decolonial psychology. -- Pratyusha (Usha) Tummala-Narra, PhD, Boston University, Boston, MA
Few disciplines have taken the recent challenges of decolonization and the decolonial turn more seriously than the branches of psychology in the Global South that explore the linkages between subjectivity, community, and social life. Yet, the task is barely starting. Building on the work of figures like the famed psychiatrist and revolutionary fighter, Frantz Fanon, among others, the editors and authors in this book seek to further illuminate the path of decolonization, anticolonialism, and decoloniality in the contemporary world. The anthology provides invaluable resources in the effort to infuse psychology with decolonial transdisciplinary approaches, thereby taking psychology beyond its modern-colonial horizons. An essential reference for anyone heeding the call to consider decolonization as an unfinished project and as an imperative today. -- Nelson Maldonado-Torres, PhD, University of Connecticut, Storrs