Franz Fanon died in 1961 aged 36. A philosopher and psychiatrist he was one of the first, and still most important, black thinkers in the western world. He helped establish militancy as a means of extracting African states from colonialism. He advocated violence and may thereby be held responsible for terrorism. Race for him was 'not fixed but a means of an unequal ordering of people in a demeaning way.' Nevertheless, he was interested in Western slavery and racism and not that of other cultures, such as Islam, thereby for me missing the complete picture and creating cognitive bias, even dissonance. His call for decolonisation otherwise has been influential and remains so but again is fixated on certain kinds of colonialism.
His thinking created the splitting off of sexual difference as a process of discrimination creating the extreme sexual identification of today.
As a psychiatrist he pointed to civil and social trauma, something I agree with, rather than the internal manifestation of traditional psychiatry, the area of 'white, privileged, middle class boys and girls in suits.' (My phrasing) That trauma for me is being treated by the very group causing it.
Fanon's writings remain relevant for their insight into the ontological traumas of racial discrimination and the psychiatric consequences of race-based violence. From Fanon, we can also gain insight and recognize that we as psychological researchers have a responsibility to confront our methodology and examine how racial biases and discrimination weave themselves into our practice.
Fanon's clinical writings are ultimately aimed at the same struggles we face today—recognizing where racism and oppression manifest themselves within our institutions and diminishing their deleterious effects on our very mental health.
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In 1951, Fanon began his residency in psychiatry at Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole under the mentorship of psychiatrists François Tosquelles and Jean Oury. There the three founded the institutional psychotherapy movement, a radical approach to mental health care that sought to transform the psychiatric hospital into a community. Under this model, patients—or rather "guests"—would have active roles in running the institution, with the aim of diminishing the inherent alienation of medical hierarchy.
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Fanon saw violence as the only language colonizers truly understand. Through violence, imperialists instilled a sense of inferiority in the colonized, and it was therefore through violence that the colonized could regain a sense of self, a sense of culture, and the physical reality of statehood. From the privilege of e.g. ethical idealism, it is easy to criticize Fanon for his support of violence; however, violence often seems less necessary to those not subjugated by it.
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When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.
The Wretched of the Earth
Frantz Fanon, 1961.
Dear Stanley Wilkin,
Your viewpoints on Franz, a philosopher and psychiatrist, are concise and comprehensive: concentrated, not an easy task to attempt.
Colonialism is a curse on humanity - it should not make much difference who did it: western colonial power or the sense of culture/religious superiority.
The ways and means to oppose Colonialism may be positioned in the spectrum ranging from non-violence to violence. Now the African people who suffer because of colonialism, while trying to get rid of colonial power would never like to call the violent means as an act of terrorism through militants. The affected African people may like to call them freedom fighters, which may not gel well with the western intellectuals. It is basically a difference in perspective.
However, I do believe that all sort of colonialism, including religious/cultural colonialism, is not good.
Good to get two such informed answers so quickly.
Nevertheless, the limited perception of colonialism needs to be addressed. Can I ask, Brajesh, freedom fighters where and for what, especially giving African countries acceptance of Russian dominance? Many African countries were not fought over but given their independence within a time scheme. But colonialism is not just about control by another country but cultural impress that makes irrelevant a native culture, for example. For many African societies nakedness carried symbolic importance but was suppressed by monotheism.
Stephen,
The psychotherapy movement you reference was know to me and I saw one working but its rationale was not defined. Creating a community of undesignated staff and patients would not meet or have met the criterion of funding bodies which require and required order based on roles and professional definition. nor would they have recognised its therapeutic status. Politics and economics played a part.
Without the above attributes therapy, understood through time and outgoings, could not be defined. Educating professionals on the limitations of their perspective might help. They tend to believe what they are told.
Religious colonisation remains untouched dependent on origins and protected by the term and concept of 'phobia'.
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