Pathologizing the Poor?
Mental Health and Positive Psychology
Glenn Adams
Department of Psychology, University of Kansas
2015-2016 Visiting Scholar, Centre for Critical Development Studies, UTSC
International Development Conference
06 FEB 2016
So, comrades, let us not pay tribute to Europe by creating states,
institutions and societies which draw their inspiration from her. …
For Europe, for ourselves and for humanity, comrades … we must
work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a new [hu]man.
-- Franz Fanon (1961). Wretched of the Earth
Mental Health and Positive Psychology
Traditional Approach: Abnormal Psychology
• MH as absence of distress, disorder, disability, or illness
Positive Psychology Response
• MH as wellness: what are the ways of being that promote
happiness, flourishing, optimal well-being?
Implications for MGMH
• beyond “people living with mental health problems and
psychosocial disabilities”
• What are the ways of being that promote happiness, flourishing,
optimal well-being?
Positive Psychology:
Pathologizing the Poor?
Like other perspectives in hegemonic psychological science,
positive psychology …
• has its basis in a relatively narrow range of cultural ecologies
associated with Euro-American global modernity
• prescribes patterns associated with neoliberal developmentality
• interprets these patterns as optimal expressions of unfettered
human nature or leading edge of cultural progress
• judges difference from this standard as (pathological) deviance:
– productive of ill-being
– underdevelopment-prone “state of mind”
Neoliberal Developmentality
(e.g., Mawuko-Yeguvah, 2014)
Embodied habits of mind (thought, desire) that orient a
person toward
–
–
–
–
an entrepreneurial model of self
opportunities for personal growth and self-actualization,
exploration and expression of authentic desires,
pursuit of defining aspirations.
cf. Higgins (1996) on promotion-focused self-regulation orientation.
Developmentality Discourse
The Social Welfare Department [in Lagos] is concerned at the evidence of
widespread emotional insecurity amongst children. If the argument put forward by
Dr. Bowlby and others is accepted, that a child may suffer lasting damage to its
emotional development if separated at an early age from its mother, many Lagos
boys and girls must grow up with their ability to form relationships of love impaired
… The exchange of children between members of the family encourages them to
identify themselves with the family group, and they must learn not to rely too much
on any one relationship. It is arguable that they grow up to depend less emotionally
on any single attachment … By learning to trust in the solidarity of the family
group, they limit the intensity of their feelings (p. 64)
Marris, P. (1961) Family and social change in an African city: A study of rehousing in Lagos. Evanston, IL:
Northwestern University Press.
Developmentality Discourse
Marris’ comments reflect and reproduce hegemonic standard of
neoliberal developmentality wherein “true” love involves
•
•
•
•
investment of affection in a “soul mate” who facilitates mutual fulfillment
growth-oriented, self-expansive pursuit of happiness and personal satisfaction
exploration and expression of authentic emotions and desires
care as provision of emotional support to provide loved ones with secure base
for their own growth and exploration (e.g., Bowlby, 1969)
Marris then interprets observations of Lagos families in pathological
terms against this standard.
Example #2: Dilemmas of True Love
(with Phia Salter, Texas A&M University)
Participants
Kansas City, USA (n=31); Accra, Ghana (n=34); Navrongo, UER, Ghana (n=36)
Procedure:
Participants completed a resource allocation task as they emerged
from Pentecostal/Charismatic (PCC) or mainstream churches.
Mother
7
Care Priority Score
Suppose there is a health emergency and
several people request your help to pay for
medical treatment. The requests are more
than you can manage with your limited
resources. Whom do you help? Please rank
the following relationships according to the
order in which you would provide treatment.
Spouse
5
3
Kansas City Accra
Navrongo
Salter, P.S. & Adams, G. (2012). Mother or wife? An African dilemma tale and the psychological dynamics of
sociocultural change. Social Psychology, 42(4), 232-242.
Research Example #2: Summary
US participants (and GH PCC-goers) tended to prioritize care to
spouse over mother.
Responses suggest a construction of love as emotional support.
Orientation toward Neoliberal Developmentality:
Participants invest in the relationship that provides present satisfaction,
best expresses deepest hopes and aspirations
Ghanaian participants (especially in less cosmopolitan settings)
tended to prioritize care to mother over spouse.
Responses suggest a construction of love as material care (Coe, 2011).
Orientation toward Broad Sustainability: Participants invest in the relationship
that reflects more enduring connection, history of mutual obligation
Conclusion:
Decolonizing Love and Well-Being
Hegemonic Science
• Dominant perspectives of hegemonic psychological science
prescribe growth-oriented ways of loving and being.
• Dominant theoretical perspectives judge ways of loving and being
in many Global South settings as unhealthy deviations from
normative standard.
Conclusion:
Decolonizing Love and Well-Being
Decolonial Response
• Patterns observed across many Global settings constitute a form of
sustainability-oriented relationality worthy of emulation.
• “Standard” forms of being in hegemonic psychology resonate with
particular cultural ecologies that have their own “pathologies”
• Oriented toward narrow accumulation that reproduces inequality
• Related to history and present of dispossession and violence.