African worldviews : their impact on psychopathology and psychological couselling

Abstract

This study investigates the role that African traditional beliefs and practices play in defining psychological problems, determines how these beliefs and practices manifest in a counselling relationship and explores how Western based forms of counselling manage these manifestations in counselling. This investigation is in the context of the on-going debate on the relevance of Western Psychological counselling in South Africa and the rest of Africa, including my experience during my internship to register as a Counsellor. It explores the impact of conducting counselling with clients whose worldviews are different from those of the counsellor and focuses on the impact of the client’s worldviews on psychological well-being, psychological ill health and the resolution of psychological problems. Psychological well-being, ill health and counselling were discussed from a Western perspective. The study found that the client participants defined their psychological problems in terms of their African traditional beliefs and practices. They communicated their presenting psychological problems in ways that created possibility of miscommunication between themselves and their counsellors, for example by using figurative language. There was also a clear distinction between how psychological problems are managed from an African traditional perspective (ritualistic) and a Western perspective (talking therapy). The study recommended the creation of specific departments in Universities to embark on research aimed at establishing foundational structures on which to build an African Indigenous Psychology as an alternative to Western Psychology. More comprehensive research on African people’s attitudes is, suggested, on what traditional Africans think of psychological counselling. Another recommendation accruing from the limitation on sampling in this study is that future studies should be conducted with larger and more diverse samples; moreover, data should be gathered on a wider variety of demographics and cultural belief systems and practices. To counter prejudice and ignorance, the counsellor ‘to be’ should study African culture and customs during their BA Honours studies. On-going training and workshops on cross-cultural issues from various cultures should be part of the counselling profession. More emphasis should be placed on prevention and therefore more mental health clinics in the rural areas need to be opened and general education on psychological issues and cultural integration be initiated.