On becoming a psychologist in apartheid South Africa

Abstract

Clinical Psychology training is an arduous journey wherever in the world one pursues it. However, in apartheid South Africa, the experience of becoming a psychologist held its own unique challenges, especially if you were a person of Colour. This article chronicles some of the barriers and hurdles that I had to overcome in order to train as a psychologist in a country where it was almost not expected that Africans could train as clinical psychologists! The story relates some of these training experiences, as well as aspects of my life in exile in the United States, and finally some of my political and related practice experiences in the latter years of apartheid. While many of the professional training challenges that are described may surprise recent Psychology graduates, it is crucial that younger members of the Psychology fraternity are made aware of the history of their profession.

Frequently asked questions about African psychology

“…Of course, there is no one-to-one correspondence between something like a decolonised psychology and an African psychology, which points to new questions. In the final analysis though, the need for an African psychological register is conceivable as part of a relatively long intellectual history to de-Westernise, contextualise, transform, or decolonise psychology and, more generally, knowledge in former colonies and the Global South (Cooper, 2013;Dawes, 1998;Manganyi, 1973Manganyi, , 2013.…”

Professional and social responsibility in Psychology and other mental health disciplines with reference to the Goldwater Rule

“…Now a recognised research methodology (Fouche, du Plessis, & van Niekerk, 2017), psychobiography researchers and writers publish detailed psychological analyses and profiles of prominent individuals, commenting on their personality characteristics, life crises, psychodynamic issues, and offer several other psychological opinions of the individual’s deeper psychological make-up. Interestingly, one of South Africa’s eminent psychologists and early psychobiography researchers Chabani Manganyi (2013), noted the following in his motivation to pursue this field of work:I have undertaken this work because of a belief that I share with the late C. Wright Mills (1959) who believed that personal, that is, private troubles of individuals can throw light on the public concerns and struggles of society at large. (p. 283).…”

Integral approach to South African psychology with special reference to indigenous knowledge

“…Cooper (2014), Manganyi (2013), and Sonn (2010) have provided insightful examples of what it meant to be a psychologist in Apartheid South Africa. Reflection on the role of the psychologist in further historical context brings consciousness of being a member of a unique community, whose vocation included the multifaceted role of shaman, sage, priest, healer, teacher, community leader and/or specialist in cultural knowledge, very similar to those prac ticed by contemporary faith healers, divine healers and herbalists in South Africa today.…”