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Similarly to last weeks discussion about the Wests relationship to the East regarding ideologies and practices of psychology, what has been the Wests relationship to Caribbean, African or Indigenous traditions related to categories such as person, suffering, health, and the good life? How have other-than-Western traditions been silenced on these topics?
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The westernized industrialized culture seems to tend to measure success, responsibility in materialistic, technological, and economic terms (Grof, 2000). This has given us great technological advances and yet we seem to be in a global crisis on many levels including but not limited to the fact that many scientists predict we will destroy the environment that supports human life if we don’t change our ways yesterday (Grof, 2000). So, it is a time of great potential, and yet we seem to in my opinion lack a pearl of certain wisdom. This wisdom is to be found within each human, in my opinion. However, we would be wise to look to the healing wisdom of ancient and indigenous Africa, for example, for inspiration as to how to access the universe of wisdom inside ourselves. For even as the Christian tradition that so many in the westernized industrialized culture seem to follow teaches people that their god is found within, people seem to have in large part embraced the exoteric part of that religion, and they seem to have long forgotten the powerful and sometimes esoteric traditions that benefit for example a shamanic community in Africa. Such a community does not have the material riches and opportunities of the so-called West, and yet through ritual, a shamanic community in Africa would be connected to a pearl of wisdom they experience as essential to human life. A shamanic community in Africa such as the one found in Some (1998) would use ritual to connect themselves to the spirits of their ancestors and to their source of spiritual inspiration and life energy (Some, 1998). Such a community would view the world as ensouled and perceive a living spirit in everything from birds to rocks to rivers. This, in their view, connects the people with inner and cosmic resources of wholeness and healing (Some, 1998). To put this in terms found in Larson (2017) the shamanic wisdom traditions of Africa tend to have an animistic worldview seeing the spirit in everything. This view seems to hold great wisdom and potential to catalyze human growth, and yet it is not very compatible of accessible to the mechanistic worldview of the West (Grof, 2000; Larson, 2017).
In researching this topic I found it interesting that while some authors criticize the West for influencing African culture (Higgs, 2000), and for teaching African people to deny their traditional wisdom, some authors also say that the best way to treat people of African descent, when they are living in a culture that has been westernized, is to construct for them a version of mainstream therapy rather than a more traditional or shamanic type of healing (Sutherland, 2011). This, in my view, demonstrates that it seems to be no longer just the West that sets the dominant paradigm, but also non-Western cultures that have become westernized.
Referenes
Grof, S. (2000). Psychology of the future: Lessons from modern consciousness research. State University of New York Press.
Higgs, P. (2000). African Voices in Education. Rustica Press. South Africa.
Larson, P. (2017). Psychological Healing: Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Professional Psychology.
Some, M. P. (1998). The healing wisdom of Africa: Finding life purpose through nature, ritual, and community. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam.
Sutherland, M. E. (2011). Toward a Caribbean Psychology: An African-Centered Approach. Journal of Black Studies, 42(8), 11751194. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934711410547
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