Race, Gender, and Psychology

From Martin Luther King's emphasis on the mental damage caused by racism to Betty Friedan's call for women's self-actualization, psychology and psychiatry have played central roles in many of the key social and political movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including civil rights and Black Power, feminism, decolonization, and LGBTQ+ rights. Once infamous for reinforcing racial and gender hierarchies, the sciences of mind, brain, and behavior have become crucial allies in these varied struggles for equality and justice. What accounts for this remarkable shift, and what have been the implications for activism of this wholehearted embrace of psychological expertise? How have psychological concepts—self, personality, identity, mental health, IQ, and trauma—been redefined and deployed toward political ends? This course takes a historical approach to these questions, situating psychology and psychiatry in social, political, and cultural contexts, both in the US and globally, and considers their relevance for the present day. Readings include original works by both scientists and activists, including King, Friedan, Thomas Szasz, Franz Fanon, Ignacio Martín-Baró, Kenneth and Mamie Clark, John Money, Abraham Maslow, Naomi Weisstein, and Carol Gilligan.