Edited by Suman Fernando and Roy Moodley, A central message of this book is the importance, for a rapidly shrinking world, for knowledge systems derived from diverse cultures to be explored and disseminated equally. The authors contend that for this to happen, academia as a whole must lead in promoting cross-national and cross-cultural understanding that is free of colonial misconceptions and prejudices. This unique collection will be of value to all levels of study and practice across psychology and psychiatry and to anyone interested in looking beyond Western definitions and understandings.
This book breaks new ground in the field of psychology and thence mental health as a whole. .
Global Psychologies with their associated themes such as ethno-psychiatries are likely to set the pattern of change during processes of decolonisation of psychiatry and psychology to bring about a critical mental health.
Suman Fernando has been writing for many years about the major legacy of colonialism inherited by today’s psychiatry & psychology — institutional racism, the devaluing of cultural diversity, & coloniality.
His first book published in 1988 has been republished as facsimile as a psychology revival.
Books authored or edited by Suman Fernando
2017
Drawing on a lifetime of experience as a practicing psychiatrist, Suman examines how the system has shifted in response to new forms of racism which have emerged since the 1960s, highlighting the widespread pathologization of black people, the impact of Islamophobia on clinical practice after 9/11, and various ways if blocking reform. This book makes a compelling case for considering psychiatry and psychology institutionally racist, and calls for a paradigm shift in both theory and practice.
2004
In what may well be his most forthright, tell-it-how-it-is book, Suman Fernando reflects on the current situation in the UK where powerful forces obstruct moves to right the obvious wrongs being done to many ordinary people because of racism embedded in the cultures of psychiatry and psychology. The inside story of the struggle against racism is told with passion and sensitivity but without malice or insult to individuals involved. In this book, Suman weaves together themes of immense importance for the future of psychiatry and mental health services in a multi-cultural setting. .
2014
Rooted in detailed analyses of their histories, Suman offers a compelling critique of the models of psychiatry and psychology and their export from rich Western countries to the relatively (industrially) less developed nations often in the guise of ‘aid’ and ‘development’. The book proposes ways of advancing the field of mental health and wellbeing generally in a way that is ethical, sustainable and culturally sensitive.
1998
Through detailed exploration of the history of psychiatry, clinical issues and present public policy, this powerful book by three authors traces the growth of a system in which non-conformity to the prevailing cultural norms risks alienation and diagnosis of mental disorder. The authors argue that the values on which psychiatry is based are firmly rooted in ethnocentric often racist Western culture, with profound implications for the racial Other, those who deviate from the white-European.
2010
A seminal text in its first edition in 1991, this third revised work of 2010 offers a unique analysis of the impact of race and culture on contemporary issues in mental health. Throughout the book, Suman offers new and alternative ways of thinking. hinting at ways that current systems can be decolonised and cleansed of the evils of institutional racism and insensitivity to the cultural diversity of human beings around the world.
2009
This second edition of a ground-breaking collection of innovative mental health services published in 1995, Suman Fernando is assisted by Frank Keating in presenting a further series of innovative mental health services reflecting on changes in the UK over the early 2000s.
Following the success of Race and Culture in Psychiatry (1988), this 1991 publication has proven to be a standard text for progressive, training in mental health for professionals in the UK and much of North America. Essentially, the book is a call to action for radical change from culturally narrow Euro-American systems to universally valid systems that draw from the diversity of cultures in the world. It sets the stage for decolonisation of psychiatry and psychology for a critical mental health; and its successive editions in 2002 and 2010 (and hopefully later ones too) enables the reader to keep up with progressive thinking.
See the general ‘Books’ page for other books of relevance to this website.