Liberation Psychology

I loved all the theories in psychology, but after a while I began to agree with those who said it was too focused on the individual and it ignored the impact of society as a whole.

We know that depression, anxiety addiction and other difficulties can be caused by poverty, racism, homophobia and all the other problems of modern society. And now we’re at the point where the earth is close to collapse. We need more than psychology and psychotherapy, which still focus too much on family of origin and on individual change.

Liberation psychology combines insights from psychology with social activism to bring about social change. It disagrees with the emphasis on the individual and especially that we are each responsible for what happens to us (‘you create your reality’) and that personal change is enough to bring about social change. We do influence our reality, but there is also a social hierarchy where some people (men, white, able bodied.) have enormous power and resources that result in violence, poverty and powerlessness. One individual can only do much to change all this – liberation psychology argues that we are better off personally and more effective politically if we work together in solidarity to bring about change.

I worked as a liberation psychologist over decades in many different contexts, mainly through my involvement in outreach education with women living in communities dealing with sexism and economic deprivation. As an activist I have also been involved in the women’s movement and the LGBTQ+ movement. One example of liberation psychology in action was during the campaign for Marriage Equality. Working with the Psychological Society of Ireland, we launched Guidelines for Good Practice with LGB Clients two months before the referendum, and enabled PSI to produce a statement in support of Marriage Equality. I also gave workshops and wrote about the sexuality spectrum, which shows how sexuality is fluid.

Here is a link to an article on the Sexuality Spectrum.

Producer

I produced the feature documentary Outitude: A documentary about the Irish lesbian Community with my partner Sonya Mulligan.

There have been many women activists, researchers, speakers, warriors who have worked on behalf of the LGBTQIA+ community to bring about equality. Our sense of solidarity, and our collective efforts to form a lesbian community, in a catholic country still affected by religiosity must not be forgotten. For the lesbians who bravely spoke out at a time when it was not popular to do so, those who revealed intimate details of their lives on radio, on tv, publicly and privately, those who lived their lives OUT LOUD AND PROUD this documentary is for you.

Another area of interest is the impact of colonization on the Irish people. We lost our connection to ancient times, to mythology and to the Irish language, as well as being impoverished and dominated through violence, culminating in the traumatic famine of the 1840s. These experience of trauma created huge difficulties for Irish people and society in the 20^th century and beyond. You can find out more about my writings on these topics through my UCD website.