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Writings for a Liberation Psychology

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Ignacio Martin-Baro is probably better known in the U.S. as one of the slain Jesuit priests of El Salvador than as the ingenious psychologist that he was. Aron and Corne do U.S. psychologists, who are more often than not barred by their lack of facility with the Spanish language from a large body of important psychological literature, a huge favor by editing this carefully chosen and lovingly prepared volume of his translated works. Because the writings they have selected span the period from 1974, shortly before Martin-Baro initiated graduate work at the University of Chicago, to 1989, when he was murdered, we as readers are able to observe the maturation of his perspective as well as the many ways he applied his psychological knowledge and training in what can only be described as a "limit situation"-- namely, El Salvador in the late l970s through the mid 1980s. In these works, Martin-Baro addressed several themes of increasing global significance, including the effects political repression on the human psyche, the effects of war on children, the relation between religious ideology and political activity, and the nature of industrial psychology from the perspective of the under- and unemployed. Of greatest significance to psychologists, however, were his overarching themes, namely, the collusive role of mainstream psychology in human oppression and the necessary role of the psychologist in human liberation. Borrowing from Freire's famed concept of conscientizacao, Martin-Baro demonstrated how psychologists can act as agents of the development of critical consciousness, both through their nurturance of individuals in the process of psychological healing and development and through their interventions, as privileged and powerful members of society, upon the diseased socio-economic/political system itself. Through their insightful, passionate, and well-researched commentary, Aron and Corne demonstrate that Martin-Baro indeed lived and died by his praxis, proving that psychology's current state of critical inertia is not a necessary condition. In my opinion, Martin-Baro is destined to become the patron saint of psychology--and, boy, does it need one.

Yes. Canonize him. Martin-Baro gave his life to prove that psychology had more business than as an on-the-shelf academic discipline. Using its methods to highlight the misery of his El Salvadoran people, he demonstrated how powerful a psychology relevant to the needs of the oppressed can be. Very inspiring.

This unique work opened my eyes to a topic that most of us have no idea about. A must read for every politcal science major, and for everyone who cares about our world.

The Jesuit priest, scholar, social psychologist and philosopher Ignacio Martin Baro wrote in the text "Religion as an instrument of psychological warfare which is a part of this book, about how religion can damage an individuals autonomy and self esteem. He wrote about how the evangelical protestant church grew at a great rate in El Salvador during the civil war that raged there during the 1980s. Some people argued the evangelical churches could quench the thirst of the people in a way that the catholic church couldnt. Baro researched what the political consequences of this where. He meant that the shift in aliegence of peoples faith was a political instrument used by those in power and that is was in fact a kind of political /psychological warfare. With this he meant that the government sought to change the mental climate of the people(the enemy). The American sponsored army in El Salvador, on the side of their regular military operations also waged a so called LIC (low intensity conflict) which was aimed at winning the people over to their side. The people often took the guerillas side and therefore it wasnt enough with a pure military victory, they where also forced to win an ideological one as well. Therefore it developed into a sociopolitical war instead of merley a military one. Propaganda and the spreading of lies and rumors where common place in this type of warfare which main purpose was to make the population insecure. Therefore it was important to tap into the religion since many people in the country looked to it for guidance in the hard times.

The liberation theology that Ignacio Martin Baro represented , which was the theology that spoke for the poor and oppressed, gave the people a tool to use in the struggle against the army. It stated that it was not gods divine will that they should be oppressed but instead it prompted them to get organized both politically and religiously to fight back against the oppression.Therefore the more progressive catholic churches that taught liberation theology became a threat to those in power in El Salvador. Trying the tactics that the military usually used with a "dirty war" proved futile against these movements since it usually only ended up creating martys.Instead the military changed their strategy to psychological warfare that focused on trying to get as many people as possible to convert from these progressive churches and their theology of liberation to these evangelical churches. The government in El Salvador tried to channel the people into fundemental evangelical protestant churches that preached "the true faith", that was grounded in "the individuals salvation", and left it to god to transorm "the sinful world" not man. These evangelical churches had sermons that contained strong anti communist sentiments. These evangelical churches had a theology that left it up to the holy spirit to intervene in the world and make changes, not man himself. Many North American evangelical churches who had close ties to some of the most conservative american political movements where invited by the governmnet in El Salvador to conduct missionary activities within the country.So what it came down to was a war for the definiion of the god image. The government wanted to take away the immanent god image from the peasant. They wanted to take away the god who acted in the world and through people. This is usually described as a horisontal religiosity which leads to critical thinking and social liberation. Instead the government wanted to implement a god image that said that god was remote, far from earth and acted on the people. This can be described as a vertical religiosity which leads to alienation and social submissiveness. This was ultimatley done to marginalize people and drive them away from any type of social protest. In these fundamentalist evangelical protestant churches people where encouraged to cut the ties to their past political activities and instead engage in intense individualistic religioús activities. When the government in El Salvador was confronted by liberation theology and the horizontal religious perspective their response was to try to get the people to convert to a form of religion that made them more passive.

Tragically Ignacio Martin Baro, the Jesuit priest who made these findings public was assassinated by the El Salvadorian army. He was murdered together with five other Jesuit priests and their housekeeper and her 16 year old daughter in 1989. Living under a constant threat because of his subversive writing he foresaw his own death. He wrote about his possible assassination: "above all, the authorities try to create an official version of facts, an "official history", which ignores, distorts, falsifies and invents crucial aspects of reality. This official history is imposed to the public through an intense and aggressive propagandistic effort, which is supported through the weight of the highest official ranks... When facts that contradict the official history filter to public opinion, authorities raise a sanitary chord around them; these facts are then relegated to oblivion. The public expression of reality, and above all, the exposure of the official history... are considered subversive activities. But they are not. They only subvert the established order of falsehood. We come then to the paradox that those that dare to talk about reality or to denounce abuse, become at least culprits of justice". Noam Chomsky wrote of him the following: ...a mind that was probing and humane, wide-ranging in interests and passionate in concerns, and dedicated with a rare combination of intelligence and heroism to the challenge his work sets forth to construct a new person in a new society"

Please see as well

Psychology of Liberation: Theory and Applications (Peace Psychology Book Series)

and

Peaceable Psychology, A: Christian Therapy in a World of Many Cultures

as well as

Toward Psychologies of Liberation (Critical Theory and Practice in Psychology and the Human Sciences)

and just maybe

Community Psychology: In Pursuit of Liberation and Well-being

and the rest.

But here we read from the well spring.

In the USA our universities are labs for corporate sponsors whose only interest is increasing sales. Thus psychology is not for liberation into living happily and frugally, but for increasing never-satisfied consumption and enslavement to the loan institutions. We do not here have a psychology which liberates but one which makes us slaves, to our appetites, to unending consumption, super-sized, and to unpayable, deeper usury.

We have in the USA scientific psychologies of enslavement.

When what we really require is our integral liberation.

Our markets require anxieties and so our media is anxiety driven. People at peace do not buy; they are happy. They are content, with what they have.

Our markets require fear and rage and competition in consumption and so our psychology studies how to produce and maintain these unsated conditions.

Our markets require individualism, not community cooperation, but each one getting their own, with no sharing. Our markets must sell more and more to survive, but now everyone is absolutely maxed out on our credit cards with no way to pay, and our nation as a whole must raise its debt ceiling higher and more often just to keep barely afloat.

Clinton left us a surplus. Where is it now?

We grind seed corn into today's flour, baking today's cake from our children, and the party rolls on like a warrior machine, unstoppable, destroying all before it, all other nations, all the weak among us, all of the vulnerable, leaving only the one percent, until realty hits and it all crashes and burns with a fury and a vengeance.

Remember Rome? Same difference.

What we require above all is a psychology of liberation.

We find this here, the legacy of a good person who sat where this avaricious war machine in the interest of corporate profits ravaged, this good person who got violently slain, unjustly, in peace and in love, a great sin against the Heavens, a great one who left us this great collection of writings, for our liberation, as well.

Our brains are enchained, to consume and to hate and to fear.

Read this book. Stop the madness. Get free, and live, and love; rejoice and be glad.

The Reverend Father Ignacio Martin Baro, SJ's writings are gathered in this volume around three themes: the psychology of the political, of the trauma of war, and rendering reality clear, free of ideology. The comprehensive while brief introduction places these writings well within the context of the life and times of the Basque Father Martin-Baro, the communities of El Salvador and the international academic community.

Psychology must cease to serve individual enslavement to the wealthy pharmaceutical corporations and examine the community reality of those victimized under our imperialist wars, whether at home or abroad. Psychology, like religion, must stand with the most vulnerable, the marginated, the oppressed, and give us a Voice of the Voiceless: The Four Pastoral Letters and Other Statements. Otherwise we serve only deepening enslavement and oppression and margination and impoverishment and despair, while enriching those who already have far too much.

Let psychology liberate, not enslave, as we have now.

Read this book and work for our freedom.

Kill Your Television

By the way, in case you did not know, and this augments the intrinsic great value of this wonderful and liberating work, which I know carry with me always like a sacred sacramental of Love, and of Peace and of WIsdomn, without even reading, but having it near, by the way, you might find this writer is also a Martyr for our FAith, along with his companions, in SAn Salvador, giving in the end his all, that we might be free.

REad Companions of Jesus: The Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador and Witnesses to the Kingdom: The Martyrs of El Salvador and the Crucified Peoples for starters . . .

and please pray for peace, inside and out