South African psychology and racism: Historical determinants and future prospects

Chapter

INTRODUCTION
Two basic aspects of critical psychology
As way of beginning we might isolate two fundamental aspects of critical
psychology. One is an issue of content - a question of subject-matter, the other

Afr ic an p sy ch ology- a nd is a means of access - a matter of approach. To deal with the content issues

south
first, critical psychology, is, at its most basic, about the power-relationships

inants
constituted by psychology as a form of knowledge and practice. In the South

m : His t orical de ter m

racis
African context, this means that a pre-eminent objective of critical psychology
is the critique of how the knowledge, the practice and the organisational struc­

and future prospects

ture of psychology itself came to perpetuate what must be South Africa's most
characteristic form of power: racism. This, after all, is the particular form of
man social asymmetry that has come to condition virtually all aspects of social exis­
ns & Brett Bow
Social asymmetry:
Garth Steve
Norman Duncan, tence in our country. The second aspect of our attentions here concerns the lack of balance or
symmetry in
question of approach, a method of critical psychology. And the particular
relations of social
means of access we have in mind here, as exemplified in the works of Rose power.

role an d evolution has

(l991, 1995), is that of historical overview and, more precisely, an overview of
?syc:ol og�'s historical
'[O]rgan ised profess10nal
.
pments within
th institutional history of South African psychology. In other words, we are
develo
rore . sooo-h·storical
often mimicked and m1r historicaljunctures, and here concerned not only with the kinds of knowledge produced by the disci­
; eren t
t d11ff.
· n social fiormat1on. a �1' of .South African soCJety
the South A;;nca
as a m,crocosm.
pline - although this is, of course, of overwhelming importance - we are
in this way has acted
ren t poin ts m time.
oncerned also with its own formal and informal conditions of restraint,
at diffe
oppression and omission, that is, South African psychology's own inner
Suffla et al (2001, 28) politi
In view of the above approach, then, this chapter traces the history and
trajectory of South African psychology, focusing on its ideological complicity
with the broader racist conditions and discourses that characterised apartheid
·outh Africa. After examining the history of South African psychology as both
EARNING OUTCOMES
mstrument and outcome of the apartheid state, this chapter interrogates the
sho uld be able to: degree to which South African psychology may be extricated from the racism
By the end of this chapter, you o gy and racis
m
hist rical inte r�ace betw een South African psychol overtly identifiable in its formative years. The possibilities for the establish­
t> Explo re the o . nt of a 'new' South African psychology as a discipline of equity and
d uring the pre-apart
heid pe�od c_ontribu­
that influ enc ed S uth African psycho lo gy's active years ration rather than as an instrument of continued exclusionary practice
o rs the apartheid
t> Understand the fact . tion of rac1s� t i·ct eo lo gies d uring rm the concluding discussions of the· chapter.
tio ns to and ong01ng perpetua . g South African psycholo gy at the
.
prospects for d �racia
. lisrn
.
t> Examine the future pr fessi onal level s.
o rganisatio nal, acad
emic and o
hecome apparent in the chapter, there are a great many types of racism,
great number of ways in which racism can be implemented. Further­
because of its multi-faceted and constantly changing manifestations,
d fie� easy description. To make matters more complicated still, there
> different ways of approaching and understanding the subject of
many of which have been reviewed from a psychological perspective by
93). As uch it is important that, right form
the outset of this chapter,

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