PINS-Psychology in Society

My Voice Matters

2025-08-08T10:50:46+00:00

Apartheid created a system of violence, in which violence was not only transmitted against the state, but also within families in different forms. In the unfolding of the everyday racism that Black academics need to endure to survive and thrive in academic institutions. It is evident thatthe oppressor’s generational transfer of racism persists, forcing Black people to resist. This is hard and exhausting labour forced upon Black bodies as part of their survival in academic spaces. Since racism and other forms of oppression continue to shape the lives of Black academics, it becomes necessary to revisit the past. Through the re-examining of the past, we can critically engage with the subtle warnings before us that the past may continue to repeat itself in the present, inevitably impacting our sense of belonging. It is through this re-examination of the past that Liezille Jacobs’ book, Rocklands: On Becoming the First Generation of Black Psychologists in Post-Apartheid South Africa, becomes a powerful testimony of resistance and refusal.

The Everyday Violence of Gendered Identities in Post-apartheid South Africa

2025-04-09T06:55:23+00:00

In South Africa, everyday violence shapes and is shaped by a historically grounded enmeshment of gendered, racialised, and classed inequities, or what María Lugones referred to as the coloniality of gender. In contributing to scholarship on the coloniality of gender in South Africa, we conducted focus group discussions and individual interviews in two marginalised South African communities. Research participants highlighted how patriarchal social relations structure quotidian life. Specifically, they described how violence is used to reify masculinised identities (e.g., that of the breadwinner) and to ‘protect’ women from other violent men. Several participants interrogated the gendered systems of meaning that are normatively attached to such violence. By examining the discursive interplay of violence, gender, and impoverishment in the data, we conclude by considering how the coloniality of gender works to entrench hierarchical social ordering in contemporary South Africa. Accordingly, we advocate for structural and political change over individualising interventions.

The Case for Psychotherapeutic Case Studies in South Africa

2025-08-22T13:51:40+00:00

With the call for relevance in, and decolonisation of South African psychology, one must consider how this may be achieved through research and clinical practice. It is argued that South African psychology remains ‘irrelevant’ due to ongoing reliance on ahistorical and de-contextualised Eurocentric knowledge (as rooted in colonial and apartheid ideology and politics). Thus, methodologies that foreground both the immediate and historical context may assist in bridging the gap between knowledge generation and meaningful practice. In this scoping review of 45 South African psychotherapy case studies, we investigate whether the methodology may be as a means of developing relevant, contextually informed psychological knowledge in line with the decolonisation agenda. The results reveal that such case studies not only evaluate the applicability of Western-developed treatment models in the South African context but also explore the unique therapeutic dynamics in context. Additionally, themes reflecting broader social challenges were highlighted, such as violence, trauma, race, anger, shame, and sadness, supporting the potential for psychological case studies to contribute to more relevant psychological knowledge and practice in South Africa.

Resisting the “Empirical” Empire: Reclaiming Palestinian Knowing in a Time of Scholasticide

2025-08-10T14:55:44+00:00

Scholasticide is a term that connotes the systematic racist attack against Palestinian knowledge and education. During the ongoing genocide, this scholasticide has intensified to an unimaginable degree, evidenced, for example, by Israel murdering thousands of Palestinian professors and students, destroying all universities and schools across Gaza. In this paper, I seek to reveal and analyze critical elements of scholasticide as I, myself, was being pushed out of a US-based university due to anti-Palestinian racism. I share my response to a statement written against me by two anonymous psychology department colleagues in my university who succeeded in advocating for the initial denial of my tenure. Central to their argument was that my scholarship on Palestinian trauma, grief, and decolonial healing was not “empirical” enough. In my response, I challenge this commonplace academic practice of defending “empiricism” while masking underlying racism that delegitimizes decolonial knowledges worldwide.

Starting the Conversation: Exploring the Meaning, Scope and Contributions of AI and Its Implications for African Psychology

2025-08-22T13:53:56+00:00

This commentary aims to open up a critical debate on the meaning, scope, and contributions of artificial intelligence (AI) with special reference to its implications for African Psychology (AP). The paper sees the potential for collaboration between AI technologies, particularly generative AI and the continued development and evolution of the emerging field of African psychology. This conversation hopes to inspire the endurance of critical discussion on the importance of AI in offering new pathways for enhancing low-cost mental health services, bridging language barriers, fostering cross-cultural understanding and improving research, particularly here in continental Africa. Ethical considerations are also explored vis-à-vis the currently unstoppable influx of AI technologies in the various ramifications of national health systems, and the economy.