Decolonizing Mental Health in the Polycrisis

Summary

Writing for psychologists, Cash Ahenakew, Vanessa Andreotti and nine co-authors trace the polycrisis to the modern/colonial “illusion of separation between humanity and the rest of nature”, imprinted on how we think, feel and relate. Repair runs two ways: those raised in separability “unlearn harmful patterns and unnumb to their relational interdependence”, while others reclaim practices that were “suppressed and pathologized”.

Rationale

Unlearning is one of the approaches we suggest. Here it reaches the therapy room, with a caution we take: what some must unlearn, others need room to reclaim.