Liberation psychology
[1] The central concepts of liberation psychology include: awareness; critical realism; de-ideologized reality; a coherently social orientation; the preferential option for the oppressed majorities, and methodological eclecticism.
[2][3][4]Through transgressive and reconciliatory approaches, liberation psychology strives to mend the fractures in relationships, experience, and society caused by oppression.
In response to these criticisms, psychologists sought to create a psychological science that addressed social inequalities both in theory and practical application.
A number of other Latin American social psychologists have also developed and promoted the approach, including Martiza Montero (Venezuela), Ignacio Dobles (Costa Rica), Bernardo Jiménez Dominguez (Colombia/Mexico), Jorge Mario Flores (Mexico), Edgar Barrero (Colombia) and Raquel Guzzo (Brazil) among others.
His two major textbooks, Social Psychology from Central America,[9] and his other books[10] are published by a small University publisher, UCA editores in El Salvador with the consequence that the breadth and depth of his work is not well known even in Latin America.Martin-Baró conducted research projects with the intention of raising awareness and providing empowerment to oppressed people of El Salvador undergoing social, political, and war-related trauma.
[11] The central concepts of liberation psychology include: awareness; critical realism; de-ideologization; a social orientation; the preferential option for the oppressed majorities, and methodological eclecticism.
[2][3][4] The intrinsic connectedness of the person's experience and the sociopolitical structure is a fundamental tenet of liberation psychology and is referred to as concientización, a term introduced by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, roughly translatable as the raising of politico-social consciousness.
Martín-Baró made a similar argument, critiquing Latin American psychologists for adopting Eurocentric psychological models that were not informed by the social, political, and cultural environment of the impoverished and oppressed, which was the majority of people in 1980s El Salvador.
[15] Unlike traditional approaches, liberation psychology seeks to re-situate the psychologist as part of the emancipatory process for and with oppressed communities.
[3] Ignacio Martín-Baró had opposed the introduction of community psychology to El Salvador, on the basis of the ameliorative (asistencialista') approach and limited social perspective of then dominant North American models.
[21] Liberation Music Therapy (LMT) is an emancipatory approach to music-making that integrates healing, social justice, and revolutionary change.
Rooted in the principles of liberation psychology and influenced by the global history of music's role in communal and spiritual practices, LMT challenges traditional, colonialist frameworks of mental health care.
LMT practitioners view music not only as a therapeutic tool but as a form of activism and resistance, fostering solidarity, critical consciousness (concientización), and community empowerment.
This approach combines music's therapeutic qualities with its capacity for social and political transformation, drawing on a variety of influences, including folk traditions, hip-hop, drumming, and chanting, alongside modern and classical genres.
Through methods such as lyric analysis, improvisation, and collective musicking, LMT bridges personal emotional experiences with broader societal struggles, engaging individuals and communities in processes of healing and liberation.
Practitioners work collaboratively, meeting communities where they are and respecting their cultural genius, with the ultimate aim of fostering both individual well-being and collective resilience.
Unlike traditional psychotherapeutic interventions, this approach reframes LGBT individuals' psychological issues as resulting from an understandable incorporation of the homonegative attitudes characteristic of the social structures within which gay and transgender people live.
Traditional psychotherapy typically recognises the effect of homophobia and its impact on LGBT people, but often fails to clear the person of the blame for embracing such views.
[35] Moreover, the framework of radical healing is closely aligned with ethnopolitical psychology, a form of liberation psychology.The aim of ethnic political psychology is to encourage healing and transformation through the development of critical consciousness and political activism, especially in regards to decolonizing people of color, reformulating their ethnic identity, and promoting racial reconciliation, personal growth, and societal change.
[36] Cultural imperialism, racism, oppression, and colonization can all result in trauma, which is believed by liberation psychologists to be able to be healed by ethno-political psychology, though no comprehensive studies exist.
POCI must be accompanied by practitioners who bear witness to their suffering and are committed to helping them recognize systemic racial oppression and colonialism, while embracing resistance instead of maintaining the status quo.
