Liberation Psychology
Liberation psychology challenges traditional Western‑based psychology by offering an emancipatory approach to understanding and addressing oppression among individuals and groups.
Liberation Psychology: Theory, Method, Practice, and Social Justice guides readers through the origins, development, and key concepts of liberation psychology; its methods, including participatory action research; its manifestation in clinical practice; its potential future applications; and its relation to social activism and social justice movements.
This book provides an understanding of liberation psychology that enhances the work of all students, researchers, and practitioners in psychology by raising awareness of discrimination, inequality, and issues related to intersectionality; affirming cultural identities; fighting oppression; and promoting social change to help alleviate human suffering and support fairness, equality, and justice. The insights provided into liberation psychology’s concepts of critical consciousness, empowerment, and social justice action can enhance the well‑being of individuals and improve lives.
I. Introduction
Lillian Comas-Díaz and Edil Torres Rivera
II. Liberation Psychology Theory
- Liberation Psychology: Origins and Development
Mark Burton and Raquel Guzzo - Concepts of Liberation Psychology
Edil Torres Rivera - Liberation Psychology and Racism
Raúl Quiñones-Rosado
III. Liberation Psychology Method
- From Freud to Fanon to Freire: Psychoanalysis as a Liberation Method
Daniel Gaztambide - Liberation Psychology of and for Transformative Justice: Centering Acompañamiento in Participatory Action Research
Jesica Siham Fernandez - Feminist Participatory Action Research: Co-constructing Liberation Psychological Praxis Through Dialogic Relationality and Critical Reflexivity
M. Brinton Lykes and Gabriela Távara
IV. Liberation Psychology Clinical Practice
- Testimonios
Alejandro Cervantes - Urban Liberation: Postcolonial Intersectional Feminism and Developing a Socially Conscious Therapeutic Practice
Chakira M. Haddock-Lazala - Liberation Psychotherapy
Lillian Comas-Díaz
V. Liberation Psychology and Special Populations
- Black Minds Matter: Applying Liberation Psychology to Black Americans
Thema Bryant-Davis and Shavonne J. Moore-Lobban - Liberation Psychology and LGBTQ+ Communities: Naming Colonization, Uplifting Resilience, and Reclaiming Ancient His-stories, Her-stories, and T-stories
Anneliese A. Singh, Brean’a Parker, Anushka R. Aqil, and Falon Thacker - Transnational Feminist Liberation Psychology: Decolonizing Border Crossings
Kathryn L. Norsworthy and Ouyporn Khuankaew
VI. Liberation Psychology Social Action
- Liberation Psychology, Creativity, and Arts-Based Activism/“Artivism”: Culturally Meaningful Methods Connecting Personal Development and Social Change
Ester R. Shapiro - Liberation, Inspiration, and Critical Consciousness: Preparing the Next Generation of Practitioners
Carrie Castañeda-Sound, Daryl Rowe, Nahal Binazir, and Marlene Cabrera
VII. Conclusion: Liberation Psychology and Beyond
Edil Torres Rivera and Lillian Comas-Díaz
Lillian Comas-Díaz, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice and a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University. The author of more than 100 publications, Dr. Comas-Díaz is also the coeditor of Latina Psychologists: Thriving in the Cultural Borderlands, Womanist and Mujerista Psychologies, and Psychological Health of Women of Color.
Dr. Comas-Díaz is the founding editor of Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, the official journal of APA Division 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race). She is an associate editor of American Psychologist.
Edil Torres Rivera, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Counseling, Educational Leadership, Educational and School Psychology and director of the Latinx studies program at Wichita State University, Kansas.
His primary research focuses include complexity and the use of indigenous healing techniques as a necessary element in psychological work with ethnic minority populations in the United States.
He serves on the editorial board of the Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology and is the editor of the Interamerican Journal of Psychology.
