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The struggle for mental health in South Africa: psychologists, apartheid and the story of Durban OASSSA
Author(s) -
Hayes Grahame
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of community and applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.042
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1099-1298
pISSN - 1052-9284
DOI - 10.1002/1099-1298(200007/08)10:4<327::aid-casp587>3.0.co;2-d
Subject(s) - mainstream , mental health , politics , sociology , social work , gender studies , service (business) , psychology , political science , psychiatry , law , economy , economics
The article provides a critical account of the way in which a group of South African psychologists and other mental health workers sought to use their professions as instruments of resistance to apartheid. Through recounting the history of the Durban branch of the Organisation for Appropriate Social Services in South Africa (OASSSA), a progressive anti‐apartheid “social service” organisation, the aims of the paper are two‐fold: firstly, to suggest some of the ways in which the practice of this broad‐based mental health and social service organisation challenged mainstream psychological thinking and began to develop some progressive psychological practices within the conditions of apartheid repression and violence; and secondly, to note some of the difficulties and contradictions that arose in OASSSA's work with working class communities, given that the organisation's membership was largely made up of middle‐class academics and professionals. The paper concludes with a critical discussion of the extent to which the group succeeded in achieving its goals of (i) service delivery, (ii) the political mobilisation of psychologists, and (iii) the challenging and critical redefinition of the terrain of psychological practice in South Africa. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.