Psychology and psychotherapy redefined from the view point of the African experience
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Authors
Baloyi, Lesiba
Issue Date
2009-08-25T10:51:57Z
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
African epistemology , Psychology , Psychotherapy , Indigenous knowledge , African experience , Moya , Kalafi ya semowa , Thuto ya semowa , Oral tradition and discourse , Science , Ontology , Ubuntu and African philosophy
Alternative Title
Abstract
To date, the vast literature on theories of psychology, and psychology as a practice, still
remains a reflection of Western experiences and conceptions of reality. This is so despite
"psychology" and "psychotherapy" being studied and implemented by Africans, dealing with
Africa's existential issues, in Africa. In this context, a distorted impression that positions
psychology and psychotherapy as irreplaceable and irrefutable Western discoveries is created.
This perception creates a tendency in which psychotherapists adopt and use universalised, foreign
and imposed theories to explain and deal with African cultural experiences.
In recent years, African scholars' quest to advance "African-brewed" conceptions, definitions
and practices of "psychology" and "psychotherapy" is gaining momentum. Psychologists dealing
with African clients are increasingly confronted with the difficulty, and in some instances the
impossibility, of communicating with, and treating local clients using Western conceptions and
theories. Adopting the dominant Western epistemological and scientific paradigms constitutes
epistemological oppression and alienation. Instead, African conceptions, definitions and practices
of "psychology" and "psychotherapy" based on African cultural experiences, epistemology and
ontology are argued for.
The thesis defended in this study is that the dominant Western paradigm of scientific
knowledge in general and, psychology in particular, is anchored in a defective claim to neutrality,
objectivity and universality. To demonstrate this, indigenous ways of knowing and doing in the
African experience are counterpoised against the Western understanding and construction of
scientific knowledge in the fields of psychology and psychotherapy. The conclusion arising from
our demonstration is the imperative to rethink psychology and psychotherapy in order to (i)
affirm the validity of indigenous African ways of knowing and doing; (ii) show that the exclusion
of the indigenous African ways of knowing and doing from the Western paradigm illustrates the
tenuous and questionable character of its epistemological and methodological claims to
neutrality, objectivity and universality. Indeed the Western claim to scientific knowledge, as
described, speaks to its universality at the expense of the ineradicable as well as irreducible
v
ontological pluriversality of the human experience. This study's aim is to advance the argument
for the sensitivity to pluriversality of be-ing and the imperative for wholistic thinking.
Description
Citation
Baloyi, Lesiba (2009) Psychology and psychotherapy redefined from the view point of
the African experience, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/1346>