Community psychology and oral history in Eldorado Park: A case study in surveillance, confession and resistance
Date
1994-10-03
Authors
Terre Blanche, Martin
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Abstract
Psychologists have a reputation for individualising, decontextualising and depoliticising
human suffering. Despite numerous exceptions to this rule - e.g. the attempts to theorize
colonial and class oppression by Fanon (1978), Bulhan (1985), Manganyi (1991) and
others - it remains true that many psychologists choose to confine their work (and their
thinking) to the safe world of the consulting room and the laboratory. Even the two
branches of the discipline supposedly most concerned with social issues - social
psychology and community psychology - are notorious for their persistent individualising
tendencies.
In this paper we describe and critique a community psychology initiative, in which
we are involved, which attempts to move beyond the individual as level of analysis and
target for intervention. In particular we are concerned to show how the knowledge
produced in and about communities through such initiatives constitutes an exercise of
disciplinary power, and to question whether such power may be wielded in a beneficial
manner.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 3 October 1994
Keywords
Community psychology. South Africa. Case studies., Oppression (Psychology)