Re-examining Psychology

Len Holdstock has studied and taught psychology in South Africa, the United States and The Netherlands. From 1989 until his retirement in 1999 he has held the chair in Clinical Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

• A Critical Appraisal of Contemporary Psychology; Part 1 An Introspective Approach to Psychology; Part 2 Ethnocentrism and Racism in Psychology; Part 3 Can the Centre Hold?; Part 4 Revisioning Psychology’s Underlying Assumptions; Part 5 Culture; Part 6 Revisioning the Concept of the Self; Part 7 African American Perspectives on the Ideological Base Underlying Psychology; Part 8 Towards an African Consciousness; Part 9 The Colonisation of Psychology in Africa; Part 10 What an African Perspective Has to Offer; Part 11 Towards an African Worldview; Part 12 Towards Romanticism in Psychology; Part 13 Conclusion;

"In keeping with its author's desire, this book is indeed a passionate statement (p. 3) of a search for meaning (p. 3) in psychology. It explores ideas and practices regarding human nature and experience originating in sub-Saharan Africa, a subject with a strong moral appeal. ... This book can be recommended for anyone interested in critical psychology and in indigenous African practices." - Desmond Painter, Rhodes University, in Theory & Psychology"Len Holdstock has written a challenging book that pokes and prods at 'Western' psychology, deconstructing it from the perspective of critical theory and illustrating its failure to take account of the complexities of traditional indigenous African epistemologies. ... The issues that Holdstock deals with in this book are emotive issues because they are connected with valuing people's sense of identity. While this book is not lacking in passion, it resists the temptation to adopt the moral high ground and simply denigrate others because they have a different point of view. We can only hope that this sort of mature perspective is not the bugle-call of someone exiting the debate and that Len Holdstock will continue to engage with the issues as strongly as he engaged this reader." - Mac MacLachlan, Trinity College, Dublin, in the Journal of Psychology in Africa'Typically, Western Psychologists are reluctant to accept endemic racism within the discipline. Holdstock boldly challenges us to get our heads out of the sand and face the reality. He invites us, Western trained psychologists of all nations, to critically question our motives for neglecting folk or indigenous psychologies, especially sub-Saharan Africa. This book does more than that. It charges us with a duty to rectify this shortcoming in order to fulfil our mission to understand and serve humankind. In challenging us to acknowledge the right of people to differ individually as well as collectively, Holdstock renews the call for the development of indigenous psychologies or a 'global community psychology'.' - Dr Kwame Owusu-Bempah, University of Leicester' a challenging book that pokes and prods at 'Western' psychology, deconstructing it from the perspective of critical theory and illustrating its failure to take account of the complexities of traditional indigenous African epistemologies.' - Dr Mac MacLachlan, Trinity College, Dublin, Journal of Psychology of Africa'Anyone interested in searching for psychology outside the Western culture will find the book stimulating.' - A.A Adegoke, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, in Ife Psychologia