Liberation Psychology: General Overview
Liberation psychology is an approach to psychology that aims to actively understand the psychology of oppressed communities by addressing the oppressive sociopolitical structure in which they exist. Developed by the Latin American psychologist Ignacio Martín–Baró, liberation psychology tasks itself with examining contexts of oppression in order to foster critical consciousness, emancipation, and transformative action within individuals.
Choosing to focus not just on the “intrapsychic,” or the individual in isolation, liberation psychotherapy, from which Liberate Therapy got its name, aims to emphasize how identity development is often damaged, thwarted, or complicated when growing up within a greater system of social relations that are, to so many of us, oppressing, dehumanizing, and alienating. Thus, rather than separating the “individual” from the “society in which they inhabit,” liberation psychology operates under the notion that the “individual” is inseparable from the “sociopolitical,” and that recognition of that inseparability is liberating to both. As Martín-Baró once wrote, “How enlightening it is to see mental health not as the result of the individual’s internal functioning, but as the manifestation, in a person or group, of the dehumanizing or alienating character of a framework of historical relationships.”
According to Martín-Baró, psychology/psychotherapy must concern itself with “3 urgent tasks.”
The Recovery of Historical Memory
By reconnecting with one’s roots, acknowledging one’s origins, one’s community identity, and one’s own history, true self-knowledge can be attained. This “historical memory” is essential in the process of interpreting one’s sense of the present, and in glimpsing possible alternatives that might exist for the future. “Thus, the recovery of historical memory offers a base for a more autonomous determination of the future.”
De-ideologizing Everyday Experience
This means establishing a “critical distance” from what appears to be “common sense” (part of one’s daily habits and ways of seeing the world), posing it as a problem to be discussed and explored, rather than something determined as “fact.” When what is previously seen as “natural” is recognized as something that is “not the whole story,” a space is opened for reflection in which other, previously unarticulated, stories come into focus. An effort must be made to eliminate self-perpetuating stereotypes and give new images for what it means to be you.
Utilizing the People’s Virtues
It is crucial to adopt a “strengths-based” approach when striving to improve the lives of individuals. This involves highlighting the resiliency and fortitude within each individual (strengths often used to cope with stressors/oppression) and, instead, transforming them into tools for liberation.
As such, Liberation psychology departs itself from traditional psychology’s sole prioritization of the individual, as well as its attribution of an individual's distress to personal “pathology.” Instead, Liberation psychotherapy seeks to understand the whole person within their sociopolitical, cultural, and historical context. Therefore, in therapy, distress is understood not solely in personal (intrapsychic) terms but in the context of social factors that impose distress onto the individual. In a psychotherapeutic context, this removes the “blame” of psychological distress solely from the individual and their immediate circumstances, and reframes the origin of distress as the environment and social structure to which persons are exposed to. This helps people understand their relationship to the power structure, and the ways in which they participate in it.
Liberation psychotherapists, such as myself, accompany clients by developing collaborative relations that acknowledge power inequality in relationships, as well as in society. We promote conscientización (critical consciousness) by teaching clients to critically perceive their circumstances/reality, analyze the causes of their distress/oppression, and discover new paths of action. This aspect of liberation psychology helps clients to understand the mechanisms of oppression, fosters agency, and encourages engagement in personal and collective social justice. We focus on clients’ lived experience in order to foster an existential examination of their life purposes, and personal liberation from potentially oppressive influences.