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Liberation psychology (LP) is a psychological framework that emphasizes social justice as a key component of mental health, defined in LP as the ability of human beings to co-exist, live in harmony, and thrive in community. Muslim mental health as a clinical focus continues to develop, and most writing emphasizes the importance of cultural sensitivity in providing effective care for Muslims, which the literature often relates to the collectivistic nature of Muslim majority societies. The literature, in turn, often uses collectivistic tendencies and research to support 1-on-1 directive approaches. This paper questions the use of such directive approaches as potentially re-creating a model of hierarchy and dominance that is connected to Muslims’ mental health challenges, particularly those of Muslim sub-populations. The authors suggest and discuss several LP-based alternatives, especially the use of group therapy as a more appropriate and culturally responsive model, from both di-rective and non-directive clinical orientations.

One of the central underpinnings of Islamophobia is the theoretical construction of Muslim women as “Other”. Going hand in hand with colonization, the overall Orientalist imaginary has depicted Muslims as misogynistic, homophobic, and gynophobic in contrast to the normal and enlightened Western European subject. Liberation psychology, as a field of decolonial work, emphasizes several main tasks one of which is the recovery of historical memory in relation to how humans see each other and the world. This paper builds on the work of recovering historical memory to emphasize the Indo-European origins of misogyny and patriarchy and the subsequent cover-up of this history as a part of the legacy of colonialism and current narratives of Islamophobia. The paper concludes that the work of psychology should include decoding reality to uncover the true nature of the origins of patriarchy, thus building new, revitalized understandings of human society.

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