The Case for Psychotherapeutic Case Studies in South Africa

A Scoping Review

Abstract

With the call for relevance in, and decolonisation of, South African psychology, it is important to consider possible ways that this can be achieved through psychological research and clinical practice. The relevance debate includes the argument that South African psychology remains ‘irrelevant’ in some ways due to its continued reliance on ahistorical and de-contextualised Eurocentric psychological knowledge, as rooted in colonial and apartheid ideology and politics. Thus, one is urged to consider possible research methodologies and practices that can foreground both the immediate and historical context of South Africans, and thus bridge the gap between theory/research and meaningful practice. Despite facing ongoing critique in the literature, the authors show that the case study method in psychology, as a form of context-dependent knowledge generation, is making its resurgence in South Africa. In this scoping review of 45 South African psychotherapy case studies published in the last 20 years, we investigate whether such case studies may be considered to be one of the possible mechanisms for developing relevant, contextually informed psychological knowledge. The results revealed that South African psychotherapy case studies not only evaluate and demonstrate the applicability of Western-developed treatment models in the South African context, but also explore the unique dynamics of the therapeutic process and alliance in context. Additionally, salient themes related to violence, trauma, race, anger, shame, and sadness were highlighted, foregrounding individual experiences and broader social challenges relevant to the South African population. The results thus support the position that psychotherapy case studies may be one possible method of developing contextually relevant knowledge in the pursuit of decolonising South African psychology.