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Towards a paradigm shift in the person-centered approachT. Len Holdstock aa Wokingham, UKPublished online: 16 Nov 2011.
To cite this article: T. Len Holdstock (2011) Towards a paradigm shift in the person-centered approach, Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 10:4, 286-298, DOI:10.1080/14779757.2011.626636
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14779757.2011.626636
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Towards a paradigm shift in the person-centered approach
T. Len Holdstock*
Wokingham, UK
(Received 1 January 2011; final version received 9 March 2011)
In view of the resurgence of the narrative perspective in psychology and theexperiential emphasis in the person-centered approach (PCA), the concept of theself underlying the PCA is discussed in terms of the geographical and culturalcontexts, which influenced my pursuit of psychology as a human as well as anatural science. During this journey I have moved from a traditional Westernapproach, focusing on the person as an independent and self-sufficient unit of thesocial system, and the importance of the sub-cortical areas of the brain inbehavior, to an awareness of the importance of the interrelatedness of the self,especially in African culture, and the implications it has for psychology. The focuson the individual as an autonomous entity has been found wanting in alleviatingthe globally growing mental health crisis – We’ve Had a Hundred Years ofPsychotherapy and the World’s Getting Worse (Hillman & Ventura, 1993). Newparadigms are required to facilitate conflict resolution, not only at individuallevel, but also in a world that is becoming increasingly fragmented. In the newparadigm, room has to be found for an interdependent model of the self thattranscends cultural boundaries.
Keywords: Carl Rogers; concept of self; culture
Hin zu einem Paradigmenwechsel im Personzentrierten Ansatz
Angesichts dessen, dass die narrative Perspektive in der Psychologie wiederauftaucht und die experienzielle Orientierung des Personzentrierten Ansatzes(PCA), diskutiere ich die Theorie des PCA, die gepragt ist vom Konzept desSelbst, vor dem Hintergrund geografischer und kultureller Kontexte, die meineAuseinandersetzung mit der Psychologie als Human- und als Natur-Wissenschaftpragten. Auf diesem Weg bewegte ich mich von einem traditionell westlichgepragten Ansatz, der sich auf die Person als eine unabhangige und selbst-genugsame Grosse innerhalb eines sozialen Systems konzentriert und der betont,wie wichtig sub-kortikale Gehirnaktivitaten fur das Verhaltens sind – hin zueinem Bewusstsein, wie bedeutsam es ist, dass das Selbst mit anderen inVerbindung steht, besonders in der afrikanischen Kultur, und welche Auswirkun-gen das auf die Psychologie hat. Der Fokus auf das Individuum als autonomeGrosse hat seine Mangel, wie sich gezeigt hat, wenn es darum geht, der globalanwachsenden Krise der psychischen Gesundheit zu begegnen.Wir hatten nun 100Jahre Psychotherapie und der Welt geht’s immer schlechter (Hillman & Ventura,1993). Es braucht neue Paradigmata, um das Losen von Konflikten zuvereinfachen, nicht nur auf individueller Ebene, sondern auch in einer Welt, diezunehmend fragmentierter wird. Das neue Paradigma muss einem Interdepen-denz-Modell des Selbst Platz bieten, das kulturelle Grenzen uberwindet.
*Email: [email protected]
Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies
Vol. 10, No. 4, December 2011, 286–298
ISSN 1477-9757 print/ISSN 1752-9182 online
� 2011 World Association for Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapy & Counseling
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14779757.2011.626636
http://www.tandfonline.com
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Hacia un cambio de paradigma en el enfoque centrado en la persona
En vista del resurgimiento de la perspectiva narrativa en psicologıa y delenfasis experiencial en el enfoque centrado en la persona (ECP), se discute elconcepto de self en que se basa el ECP en terminos de los contextos geograficos yculturales, los que influyeron en mi busqueda de la psicologıa como una cienciahumana y a la vez natural. Durante este viaje he ido de un enfoque occidentaltradicional, centrado en la persona como una unidad independiente yautosuficiente del sistema social y la importancia de las areas sub-cortical delcerebro en el comportamiento, a una toma de conciencia de la importancia de lainterrelacion de la persona, especialmente en la cultura africana y lasimplicaciones que tiene para la psicologıa. He encontrado que el foco en elindividuo como una entidad autonoma es impotente para aliviar la creciente crisisde salud mental a nivel mundial – Hemos Tenido Cien Anos de Psicoterapia y elMundo Se Esta Agravando (Hillman y Ventura, 1993). Se necesitan nuevosparadigmas que faciliten la resolucion de conflictos, no solo a nivel individual,sino tambien en un mundo que se esta volviendo cada vez mas fragmentado. En elnuevo paradigma debemos encontrar espacio para un modelo interdependientedel self que trascienda las fronteras culturales.
Vers un changement de paradigme dans l’approche centree sur la personne
La discussion porte sur le concept du self sous-jacent a l’ACP, etant donne laresurgence de la perspective narrative en psychologie et l’accent mis surl’experientiel dans l’approche centree-sur-la-personne. Il est examine par rapportaux contextes geographique et culturel, contextes qui ont influence ma rechercheen psychologie en tant que science autant humaine que naturelle. Partant d’uneapproche occidentale traditionnelle, qui focalise sur la personne en tantqu’element independant et autonome du systeme social, ainsi que surl’importance des zones sous-corticales du cerveau par rapport au comportement,mon voyage m’a amene a m’ouvrir a une conscience de l’importance, pour le self,des interrelations, particulierement dans la culture africaine, et les implicationspour la psychologie. La focalisation sur l’individu en tant qu’entite autonome aete prise en defaut pour attenuer la crise croissante de sante mentale au niveaumondial – Nous Avons Eu Une Centaine d’Annees de Psychotherapie et le MondeSe Deteriore (Hillman & Ventura, 1993). Il nous faut de paradigmes nouveauxpour faciliter la resolution de conflits, non seulement au niveau des individus,mais aussi dans un monde qui devient de plus en plus fragmente. Dans le nouveauparadigme, il faut trouver de la place pour un modele interdependant du self quitranscende les limites culturelles.
Com vista a uma mudanca de paradigm na abordagem centrada na pessoa
Em face do ressurgimento do paradigma narrativo na psicologia e doenfase experiencial da abordagem centrada na pessoa (ACP), discute-se oconceito de ACP subjacente ao self, em termos de contextos geograficos eculturais que influenciaram a minha batalha pela Psicologia enquanto cienciahumana e natural. No decurso desta jornada, mudei a minha posicao, que erainicialmente uma abordagem ocidental tradicional e foquei-me na pessoaenquanto unidade independente e auto-suficiente do sistema social, bem comona importancia do papel das regioes sub-corticais do cerebro sobre ocomportamento. Mudei no sentido de uma tomada de consciencia da importanciada interrelacao do self, particularmente na cultura africana, e nas implicacoes queisso tem para a psicologia. O foco no indivıduo enquanto entidade autonomaencontrava-se deficitario no alıvio da crise crescente da saude mental – TemosCem Anos de Psicoterapia e o Mundo Esta a Piorar (Hillman & Ventura, 1993).Sao necessarios novos paradigmas que facilitem a resolucao de conflitos, nao so
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a nıvel individual mas tambem para um mundo que esta a tornar-seprogressivamente mais fragmentado. Neste novo paradigma, ha que encontrar-se espaco para um modelo interdependente do self, que transcenda as fronteirasculturais.
For several decades now I have been in conflict with psychology about its lack ofcultural awareness. In this paper the concept of culture refers primarily to the beliefsystems, the ideologies that separate us at various levels, be they ethnicity, race,nationality, geography, age, gender, religion, or orientations within psychology.Initially, with respect to South Africa, the base from which I operated at thebeginning of my career, I argued my case in publications featuring the neglectedpotential of indigenous healing; questioning whether the perpetuation of psycholo-gical colonialism in South Africa was due to arrogance or ignorance; labelingpsychology lily-white; comparing the profession to an ostrich with its head in thesand; highlighting the nature of the dreams of the izangoma (the collective term forvarious categories of indigenous healers among different ethnic groups); and callingfor an educational system appropriate for a new South African nation (seeHoldstock, 2000, for references).
As the years rolled by my critique shifted to the focus in psychology on theindividual, on the self as an independent unit of the social system, which has beenthe hallmark of the discipline and the profession from the very beginning. Iwondered whether the concept of the self would influence the nature of thebreakdown of the self. Chapters discussed the importance of travelling within aswell as exploring our relatedness without. Since African and other majoritycultures entertain a view of the self as an interdependent entity, to disregardcultural reality was considered a perilous problem; the neglect of Africa inpostmodern psychology a sin of omission (Holdstock, 2002). The dis-ease with theindividualistic orientation of the discipline and the profession found expression inRe-examining Psychology: Critical Perspectives and African Insights (Holdstock,
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2000). References to the above-mentioned concerns, not indicated, can be found inthis work.
With a move to the Netherlands in 1989, the concerns I had about the lack ofcultural awareness in psychology and about the individualistic focus of the disciplinecentered on the PCA. Like all of us, Carl Rogers was a product of his time andculture and that zeitgeist shaped his approach to psychotherapy/counseling. Due tohis pervasive influence, Rogers has been credited with having initiated the era ofpsychotherapy. However, that honor also left him vulnerable to criticism for definingthe problems of people in personal or narrowly interpersonal terms, for all practicalpurposes independent of the nature and structure of the social order.
Interestingly, during the latter stages of his life, Rogers evidenced concern aboutthe consequences of political decisions by authorities in power, including those in hisown country. However, he did not realize how the individuocentric focus of hisapproach propagated the market forces that inspired and maintained the culture ofindividualism. Neither did he consider that facilitating independence and self-sufficiency by means of an interpersonal therapeutic relationship confronted theclient with a classical double-bind situation. Rather cynically, one can argue thatbuilt into the profession is a mechanism for ensuring itself of a continuing clientpopulation by implicitly fostering the alienation endemic in Western societies.Despite relative economic welfare the incidence of emotional malaise and call onpsychotherapy in this part of the world is high and continues to increase. By payingfor psychotherapy people hope to overcome their problems and alleviate theirloneliness. Companionship and relationship have indeed become marketablecommodities.
The core of the argument I pursued in publications during my time in theNetherlands focused on whether the concept of the self underlying PCA and client-centered therapy (CCT) was appropriate for the 21st century (see Holdstock, 2000,for references). PCA was spreading its ethnocentric orientation with old-fashionedcolonial zeal. Instead of facilitating mental health, my concern has been thatpropagation of the individualized notion of the self as the unit of the social system atthe expense of interpersonal relatedness can be iatrogenically damaging.
My own awareness of the need for a shift from the independent towards theinterdependent concept of the self has been slow in developing. For clarity, it is notindependence or interdependence. Both orientations are necessary. It is the over-emphasis or under-emphasis of one or the other that is of concern. Furthermore, theextent of my enculturation in societies that herald the merits of an autonomous selfcontinues to thwart my ability to practice what I preach in terms of balancingindependence with interdependence.
Cognizance of the importance of regarding the self in terms of an appropriatebalance between its independent and interdependent dimensions developed out of anawareness of the uniqueness of African culture, which, rather paradoxically,occurred in California. During 1975/76 I was a Visiting Fellow at the Center forStudies of the Person (CSP) in La Jolla. During my 20 months at CSP I becameaware of the difference, as well as the similarity, between person-centeredness as away of life in southern Africa and as a formulated therapeutic/counseling approach.Yet, I was not able to formulate the intuitively felt discrepancy in academic terms.Thus, when Rogers invited me to write a chapter on his personality theory for ahandbook edited by Corsini, I could do no better than formulate his theory in termsof how it had been done before (Holdstock & Rogers, 1977). If I had to do so again,
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the chapter would have had a distinctly different flavor. I often wondered whatRogers would have made of such an endeavor and whether he would have beenhappy to put his name to the chapter.
In such a rewrite I would have discussed the incongruence between his theories ofpersonality and of therapy. Of the necessary and sufficient conditions underlyingtherapy, only congruence is in accordance with his personality theory, the idea of theself as an autonomous, self-sufficient entity. Empathy and unconditional positiveregard reflect other-centeredness, hallmarks of the interdependent self. Rogers wouldundoubtedly have argued that he has acknowledged the importance of others in thedevelopment of the individual, and to some degree he has indeed done so.
Rogers conceded that development of the human organism was towardssocialization, broadly defined – whatever that entails. However, he made anintriguing distinction between the actualizing tendency of the organism and theactualizing tendency of the self, which constituted a subsystem of the actualizingtendency. The central force in the human organism was towards autonomy and awayfrom heteronomy and control by external forces. Others came into the picturepotentially as forces impeding the sense of self or at best, facilitating actualization ofthe self, but not as constituting part of the self that has to be actualized.Interpersonal encounter at the service of self-development, but not constituting partof the concept of the self to be actualized, is indeed a strange paradox. Paraphrasingwhat President Kennedy famously proclaimed, it is not what your country can do foryou, but what you can do for your country.
Markus and Kitayama (see Holdstock, 2000, for references) expressed theaspirations of the independent self well. They stated that there was a faith in theinherent separateness of distinct persons. The normative imperative of attending tothe self, the appreciation of one’s difference from others, and the importance ofasserting the self, is to become independent from others and to discover and expressone’s unique attributes. Behavior is organized and made meaningful primarily byreference to one’s internal repertoire of thoughts, feelings, and actions, rather thanby reference to the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others.
Congruence, awareness of one’s own inner experiences and the appropriateexpression of these experiences, constitutes the apex of psychotherapy. Specializedtechniques of therapy, such as Focusing, even developed to facilitate such awareness.However, the expression of one’s:
internal attributes can be at odds with the maintenance of interdependent, cooperativesocial interaction, and when unchecked can result in interpersonal confrontation,conflict, and possibly overt aggression . . . For those with interdependent selves(composed primarily of relationships with others instead of inner attributes), it may bevery important not to have intense experiences of ego-focused emotions . . . it is theinterpersonal context that assumes priority over the inner attributes, such as privatefeelings. (Markus & Kitayama, as cited in Holdstock, 1996, p. 50)
The difference in attitude towards anger between cultures with interdependent orindependent orientations towards the self is a case in point (Holdstock, 1996). Inview of known cultural differences in the way the self breaks down and the waysubsequent restoration is achieved, the nature of the self is a daunting area awaitingexploration with respect to mental health (Holdstock, 1995).
As an example of a predominantly interdependent culture I would like tohighlight what I have come to learn about the African concept of the self. I use the
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concept of the African self in its broadest sense, similar to generalizations about theWestern and Asian selves. Since the concept of the interdependent self in sub-Saharan Africa has been discussed extensively elsewhere (Holdstock, 2000), suffice ithere to highlight the African self in terms of the concept of ubuntu, the supremeAfrican virtue. Ubuntu implies that one’s uniqueness on earth is determined by thequality of the humanity one extends to others. The extraordinary humanity ofNelson Mandela exemplifies this virtue to the nth degree. Mandela stood for fairnessin all matters to all people. Fairness was an absolute right under the law. Ubuntuconveys the idea of strength based on the qualities of compassion, care, gentleness,respect, and empathy. Barack Obama comes across as striving towards the sameideals in his approach to government. One can assume that it is for these values thathe has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Shared interests define Obama’s world(Wilson, 2009).
Various African sayings portray the essence of ubuntu. Umuntu ngumuntungabantu states that a person is a person only through other persons. In contrast tothe Cartesian dictum that I am because I think, Africans maintain that I am becauseI belong. The African concept of the self is even more incorporative than being inrelation to others. Each of us is considered to be a vital force in participation withother vital forces. In addition to other people these vital forces include the deceasedancestors, the animate and even the inanimate world. The self constitutes part of theunfolding of an enfolded universe and can never unfold by itself, for it is inextricablyintertwined with the total unfolding of the enfolded order. Mutuality andindividuality go hand in hand. In Zulu mythology of creation, the first personsarrived in the company of others as well as of animals. A Zulu sage used metaphorsof fire and the human hand to convey the African sense of self to me. According tohim, we are flames of the same fire, fingers of the hand of God.
Since the academic and the personal narratives are intertwined, the geographicand cultural contexts that shaped my present views need to be mentioned. Myintroduction to CCT, as it was called then, occurred at the University of Stellenboschin South Africa during the 1950s. Many years later, in 1982, I had the opportunity tointroduce Rogers to the birthplace of CCT in South Africa. It was not an experiencethat he particularly enjoyed though. The fact that Stellenbosch was an Afrikaansuniversity which adhered to the apartheid legislation of the Nationalist governmentcertainly contributed to his evaluation of the experience. To continue with thepersonal narrative, however, in 1959 I had the opportunity to study in the UnitedStates on a scholarship from the Institute of International Education. After anacademic year at the University of Kansas, I transferred to the University ofWisconsin because of the presence of Carl Rogers.
It was at the University of Kansas that I had my first exposure to encounter andgroup therapy, and in the group, of prejudice towards me as a white South Africanmale. The contact with the Gestalt psychologist, Fritz Heider, at Kansas, also left alasting impression upon me and strengthened the unitive view of mind, brain, andbody, the basis of which was laid at Stellenbosch University. An important part ofmy studies at Stellenbosch consisted of investigating the relationship between aspectsof behavior, the central and the autonomic nervous system, utilizing electroence-phalography, galvanic skin response, heart rate, and plethysmographic measures.
In contrast to the experiences at the universities of Stellenbosch and Kansas, itwas at Wisconsin that I first became aware of marked dichotomies/cultures withinpsychology. The most divisive of which was that between the human science-oriented
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clinical psychologists and the experimentally, laboratory-oriented department ingeneral. Rogers was not only the most prominent, but virtually the only humanscience-oriented representative. The conflict encompassed what to this day remains amajor dilemma in psychology (Holdstock, 2000).
I had the best of both worlds of psychology at Wisconsin. The courses and groupwork I did with Carl Rogers satisfied the expectations I had of psychology as anexperiential and human endeavor. On the other hand, excellent courses inneurophysiological psychology were on offer and I was able to initiate researchinto the importance of the sub-cortical areas of the brain (the limbic system) inbehavior, utilizing the autonomic nervous system techniques I became familiar withat Stellenbosch.
After graduating from Wisconsin I returned to South Africa and taught at theUniversity of Stellenbosch and then at the University of the Witwatersrand inJohannesburg. At the latter university I continued with the brain research that wasstarted at Wisconsin. At an annual meeting of the South African PsychologicalAssociation an incident occurred that had considerable impact on me. After thepresentation of a paper on the role of a specific area of the limbic system on someaspect of behavior, Chabani Manganyi, the first black clinical psychologist in SouthAfrica, quietly confronted me with the question of how serious I was in doing thetype of research that I was involved in. He did not add ‘‘in South Africa,’’ but as timewent by and I became more involved in community work, I began to ask thatquestion of myself.
Although I was unaware of it at the time, the move to the University of theWitwatersrand represented, in several respects, a significant step. The roots with myethnic background were severed and I had little contact with significant others frommy past. While I was geographically back on the South African highveldt,Johannesburg was several hundred kilometers away from Bloemfontein, the placewhere I grew up in an exclusively Afrikaans-speaking household and environment. Itwas also the first time that I lived and worked amongst English-speaking SouthAfricans.
The move to the University of the Witwatersrand was not only significant interms of the severance with my Afrikaner background and introduction to English-speaking South Africans, but it also afforded me the opportunity to work with theAfrican community. It was about 1970 when the Rev. John Tau invited me to lend ahand in his endeavors to establish the Soweto Marriage and Family Life Society. Iserved on his executive committee and conducted workshops in individual and groupcounseling and psychotherapy for the training of lay personnel. At the time I wasunaware of the extent to which I functioned exclusively within the paradigms offeredby psychology as a Western discipline. The focus in the workshops was primarilyperson-centered, although Gestalt therapy, transactional analysis, and dream workfeatured as well.
My involvement with the Soweto Marriage and Family Life Society provided mewith a unique opportunity to work in a professional capacity in the township duringa period when political apartheid was at its height. It also gave me the chance to getto know the African volunteers as colleagues and friends. Through them I learned, tosome extent, what it meant to be black, not only in South Africa living under alegally imposed system of apartheid, but also in the countries of Europe that weresupposedly free of racial discrimination. In addition, my involvement exposed mefirst-hand to some of the realities of the apartheid system, even if these encounters
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could in no way be compared to what the African people had to endure. Hardly anoccasion went by that I was not stopped at roadblocks on my way into Soweto.Sometimes it occurred three times on a single trip, even more often if a black womanwere with me on the way to or from our meetings. I was cautious and always madesure that I had the required permit to be in the township.
Although the University of the Witwatersrand prided itself in being politicallyliberal, its educational approach was ethnocentric and conservative. African studentswere welcome at the university, but their education occurred exclusively through thelenses of Western curricula and methodologies. Furthermore, the mug-and-jugtheory of teaching prevailed, as it continues to do in most educational institutions inthe Western world.
In keeping with the psychological zeitgeist among English-speaking universitiesin South Africa at the time, the predominant orientation at the University of theWitwatersrand was logical positivistic. My brain and later sleep research fitted inwell, but not the person-centered approach. In fact, the university has contributedsignificantly to the field of behavior therapy and its offshoots through the work ofJoseph Wolpe and Arnold Lazarus, who had their training at Witwatersrand.An interesting aside is that psychology departments at Afrikaans universities,adhering to the policies of an apartheid regime, followed a client-centeredparadigm, while English universities that were seemingly in opposition to thegovernment followed behavior modification paradigms with its emphasis ontherapist control.
I had kept in touch with Rogers upon my return to South Africa and con-sequently renewed the relationship in 1975 at CSP where Rogers was ResidentFellow. As mentioned earlier, it was on this occasion that I became aware of theuniqueness of the psychological dimension existing in Africa. The experience canperhaps be likened to the well-known phenomenon of figural aftereffects, amazingexamples of which have recently circulated on Internet. While space does not allowdiscussion of the dynamics of the figure-ground relationship in our visual system, it islikely that the importance of contrast in shaping what we perceive applies equallywell in determining experiences of an experiential and cognitive nature.
I could not define precisely what it was about Africa that I experienced sodifferently at CSP, though. My studies at universities on two continents provided noinsight into the psychological dimensions underlying the way of life of the majorityculture in the country of my birth. In fact, neither did my education provide anyinsights into any of the majority cultures in the rest of the world. I determined to dosomething about the lack of insight and paucity of knowledge upon my return toSouth Africa, which occurred in July 1976. Interestingly, it was at a time when thecountry still rocked from the student protests in Soweto the previous month againstAfrikaans as the medium of instruction at school.
Not quite knowing how to go about concretizing the psychological dimensionsunderlying the African way of being that I experienced so differently in California, Iapproached the cross-cultural psychologists at the then National Institute ofPersonnel Research in Johannesburg. However, it was evident that the traditionalcross-cultural approach in psychology was not going to guide me towards indwellingin the psychological dimensions underlying the African way of being. I continued toserve on the executive committee of the Soweto Marriage and Family Life Society,but also began to explore indigenous African approaches to healing and mentalhealth.
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Everyone in South Africa knows about indigenous healing. However, due to thelogistical problems inherent in the political situation determining interpersonalrelations in the country, it took the better part of a year before I had establishedreliable contact with a number of izangoma. Once the contact has been established,though, I received invitations to attend ceremonies relating to the selection, training,and graduation of the izangoma. On the basis of these contacts the first conferenceon indigenous healing was organized in Johannesburg in May 1978. Subsequently, anumber of other conferences were organized highlighting various aspects ofindigenous healing and of African culture. I had a three-fold purpose in organizingthe conferences: as a recognition and celebration of African culture, as anintroduction of myself and other white South Africans to aspects of African culture,and as an opportunity to integrate African and Western paradigms.
In response to the challenge made by Chabani Manganyi more than a decadeearlier about the relevance of the brain research I was involved in, I finally phasedout all the laboratory brain and sleep research. The productiveness of the researchoutput generated in the laboratory provided the academic security to venture forthinto psychologically uncharted territories. Although space does not allow forexpanding on the lessons learned from the brain research I was involved in, it isworth mentioning that dramatic developments are to be seen in the growth of therelatively new Social and Affective Neuroscience Society. The emphasis in the societyis on relating social behavior and the power of human attachment to brain func-tioning (Brooks, 2009).
One of the large laboratory rooms was remodeled to serve as a consulting roomfor visiting izangoma from Soweto. As part of the requirements for a course inAfricentric psychology that I was developing, sophomore students were required togo for divination and to write reports covering the factual as well as the affectivenature of their experiences during the consultation. Needless to say, snide remarkswere made by some of my colleagues about the introduction of the izangoma on thecampus of a staid academic institution.
A whole new world opened up after my association with the izangoma got off theground. In a way I had to reinvent myself. I had to relearn the art of asking relevantquestions, for I was entering a domain about which I knew absolutely nothing. I hadto accept and respect a completely different, and at times, a totally incredulousreality. My training in person-centered therapy undoubtedly helped in being able todo so. Respect for the realities of another culture is basically no different than respectat individual level. In addition, I had much to learn, not only factually, but in termsof how to behave, overtly as well as covertly, in a psychological context which wastotally new to anything I had experienced until then. The sum total of all thesediscoveries and adaptations was a newly found humility and an awareness of howimportant cultural and individual belief systems are in determining the lives ofpeople. It was at this time that I became aware of a reality other than the profane,and of the discovery of the sacred in the natural order of nature and in the honoringof the seemingly mundane events of daily life.
Academically I was relatively unproductive during this period. My first intentionwas to write about the various ‘‘classes’’ of izangoma I had come into contact with.However, as I consulted with more and more izangoma it became apparent that itwas not such an easy matter as the anthropological texts would like one to believe.Different classes of izangoma existed, yet these categories also overlapped in anuntold number of ways. Clearly the language and the mode of scientific thinking
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available to me were inadequate to capture the essence of the differences andsimilarities which existed simultaneously. Thus, I resorted to filming the rituals andthe ceremonies to which I was invited with the Super-8mm camera. Later I learnedthat what I was doing was called ethnophotography. Although some of this footagehas been edited in an amateurish fashion, it is with great regret that I look back atnot having had the proper filming equipment at my disposal to do professionaljustice to the wealth of the material I was exposed to. The indigenous approaches tohealth and healing in southern Africa need to be respected. One way of doing sowould be professional documentation similar to the way the various approaches topsychotherapy have been documented. Besides, the changing socio-political-economic conditions necessitate documentation. I realize that it is my trainedacademic self writing, for although changes will occur with the passage of time andindustrialization, the practices of Africa will undoubtedly continue quite indepen-dently of their ever having been documented by me.
As I became more involved with izangoma practices and ways of healing inSoweto, opportunities arose to visit other practitioners in the rural areas of thecountry and to encounter the various categories of healers and healing practices. Ifelt highly privileged to be so unconditionally accepted by the community of healers,their patients, families, neighbors and friends. Their trust afforded me theopportunity to become part of the daily life and to indwell into the belief systemand approach to mental health representative of so many people on the sub-continent. In time, my appreciation of the opportunity afforded me multiplied manytimes over. So did my joy in being part of the uniqueness of the subcontinent.
Once the immersion in the African approach to mental health was established,the exploratory process took on a life of its own. Many male izangoma also sculptedand painted and since art has fascinated me since childhood, although I can do nobetter than draw stick figures, I became involved with township art to the extent thatI initiated promotion of this work in the United States during sabbatical leave in1983 and subsequent summer holiday periods. Due to political realities at the timeand my commercial inexperience, the project was not successful.
Other vistas involved exploration of the rich treasure of rock paintings in themountainous eastern part of South Africa and rock engravings in the drier westernpart. As I have discovered the essence of the formal person-centered approach to bepart and parcel of the African way of life, I found archetypal and Jungianpsychology, not only in the ritual ceremonies of indigenous healing practices, butalso in the mythical and spiritual nature of the rock paintings and in the symbolismof the geometric patterns of the engravings. Much of what Carl Jung and others havewritten about the archetypes are inscribed on the rocks in the southern African veldtand enacted in the ritual practices of the izangoma.
Although my immersion in aspects of the African way of life has been relativelyextensive, and some healers paid me the honor of considering me an umdawuisangoma (a specific class of indigenous healer), I was fully aware of the short-comings in my ability to transcend my psychological acculturation. In addition, Irealized that even the development of an Africentric psychology was limited inbringing about the socio-political-economic change that was necessary to improvethe quality of life for the majority population. I was teaching courses alongAfricentric lines at the time, writing newspaper articles and organizing conferences.
I had also invited Carl Rogers to South Africa in 1982, but the invitation was notaimed at possible contributions he could make. My main purpose was to give
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something, in the form of an introduction to African culture, back to what hehad contributed to my development. However, the visit enhanced my awareness ofjust how restrictive the individualistic orientation of our profession was incontributing meaningfully to change that was required in the larger socio-political-economic context. In fact, when Rogers enquired from an African shaman what hecould do for the country, the resounding answer was, ‘‘Nothing Dr. Rogers,nothing.’’
After a brief period as visiting professor at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam in1988, I accepted the position of chairperson of the department of clinical psychologyat that university in 1989. However, being back in Holland where some of myancestral roots stem from, I discovered just how far removed from these roots I havegrown. I am as much a child of my African Earth Mother as of the mother who gaveme birth. At present I am in that paradox in which millions of people find themselvesthese days, alienated from the place of their birth as well as of the country in whichthey reside. I live in England to be close to at least one of my sons after the death ofmy wife. The two other sons live in France and the United States!
In light of my experiences it is no great surprise that I stress the importance ofbecoming aware of the importance of culture, not only at the level of the individual,but at the molar, collective level as well. It is imperative that cultural and sub-cultural identities/belief systems be respected. Despite the advances of globalization,fragmentation of the world order is an even more astounding phenomenon,seemingly without an end in sight, occurring in all parts of the world. Althoughpsychology, in its ethnocentric solipsism, continues to aspire towards becoming adiscipline with universal application, there is a growing awareness that coping withcultural diversity represents one of the greatest interpersonal challenges facinghumankind.
Even in such disciplines as philosophy, religious studies and anthropology,concern has been expressed about the difficulty, as well as the necessity, to bridgecultural divisions. In these attempts, the language used will do person-centeredpsychologists proud. Although the philosopher, Kimmerle, has never heard of CarlRogers, CCT or PCA, he suggested listening as a method to gain understanding ofanother culture (see Holdstock, 1999, 2000, for Kimmerle and the followingreferences). Writing from the perspective of world religions, Smart points out thatpeople get trapped in their own culture and belief system. He employs the concept of‘‘structured empathy’’ to indwell into another culture and emphasized the suspensionof one’s own beliefs in an effort to understand the world of the other. Smartsuggested description rather than judgment. The anthropologist, Shweder, suggesteda model he jocularly (one presumes) has referred to as confusion(ism), to indicatethat cultures can be so diverse that it is often impossible to comprehend their relativeframeworks. Theologists van Bleek and Blakely are of the same opinion.
During Rogers’s 1982 visit, after a meeting with an extraordinary gifted person,Rogers summarized the occasion by referring to the African as ‘‘a primitive wiseman!’’ Granted, the individual lacked formal schooling, but spoke multiplelanguages within the Germanic, Nguni and Sotho language categories; had writtena number of books in English; was an extraordinary orator who has held audiencesspellbound at a meeting of the International Transpersonal Association in Kyoto,Japan; also, as keeper of his culture’s oral tradition and as an artist of considerableskill, sculpted and painted scenes from Zulu mythology on the walls of mud huts ofhis community centre in Soweto.
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I am writing this at a time that news of the death of Claude Levi-Strauss, theFrench anthropologist, has been reported in the press. The serendipity of the events,and the fondness with which Rogers spoke of serendipity in his life, prompts me torefer to Levi-Strauss’s structuralism as an explanation for the comment of Rogersabout the sage and, in extension, for much of psychology. According to Levi-Straussthe human brain systematically processes organized, structured, units of informationthat combine and recombine to create models which we use to make sense of theworld we live in. Cultures differ in the nature of the models that are employed. Theimportance of the other and of the role of image in African models departed toomuch from the structural model of the self-sufficient individual in cognitive controlof his/her environment in the culture Rogers belonged to for him to have been ableto enter the reality of the sage and his culture. I doubt that Levi-Strauss would havehad the same difficulty in understanding the sage. In Tristes Tropiques (1955/1973) hewrote that ‘‘the I is hateful’’ and in the final part of The Savage Mind (1962/1968),raged against Sartre’s glorification of individual choice. In fact, Foucault andDerrida, considered to be post-structuralists, merely followed Levi-Strauss indeclaring the ‘‘death of the subject.’’
I have similarly been guilty of cultural blindness! In addition to my ethno-photographic quest, I have endeavored to have the depictions of Zulu mythology onthe mud walls of huts in Soweto ‘‘preserved’’ for posterity by trying to motivate theartist to paint some of the scenes on canvas that I had provided for that purpose.Needless to say, that never happened. I doubt that Levi-Strauss would have beenprompted to do what I did in light of his skepticism towards the philosophical andartistic achievements of the literate civilizations of the Western world.
I have listened to politically liberal South African theologians describe theAfrican concept of God to be that of a wise man, while the Christian concept honorsthe ‘‘real’’ God. Dutch students for whom I had organized counseling internshipopportunities at some of the ethnic universities in South Africa, returned early,discouraged that counseling was not relevant due to social conditions beyond thescope of ‘‘talk’’ therapy.
The difficulty in bridging cultural divisions becomes much more pronouncedwhen power enters the equation. Is acceptance of and respect for alternate beliefsystems possible if each denies the reality of the other and even aims at the eventualdestruction of the other? As psychologists we can beg out of addressing such issuesby referring them to the political spectrum. However, we cannot avoid ourresponsibility. If we do not lay the groundwork for educating future generationsabout our relatedness as human beings, then who is to do it?
Recently, Jim Leach (2009), Chairman of the National Endowment for theHumanities, at a speech to the National Press Club, stated that violence and socialdivision are thought processes that begin in the hearts and minds of individuals.Refocusing our attention on the self as an interrelated and interdependent unit of thesocial system may contribute, however insignificantly at first, to a change in the waywe ultimately regard each other, not only within our own inner circles, but acrossglobally disparate cultures as well. Peaceful conflict resolution, at the most difficultlevel, between diverse ethnic and racial groups vying for political power, is possible,as evidenced in South Africa’s recent past. I believe that the philosophy of ubuntu,the African equivalent of the concept of the self as an interdependent unit of thesocial system, laid the foundation that allowed this momentous politicaltranscendence to occur. Certainly, it is a model we can learn from!
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Holdstock, T.L. (1996). Anger and congruence reconsidered from the perspective of aninterdependent orientation to the self. In R. Hutterer, G. Pawlowsky, P.F. Schmid, & R.Stipsits (Eds.), Client-centered and experiential psychotherapy (pp. 47–52). Berlin: PeterLang.
Holdstock, T.L. (1999). The perilous problem of neglecting cultural realities. AmericanPsychologist, 54, 838–839.
Holdstock, T.L. (2000). Re-examining psychology: Critical perspectives and African insights.London: Routledge.
Holdstock, T.L. (2002). Post-modern psychology and Africa. American Psychologist, 57,460–461.
Holdstock, T.L., & Rogers, C.R. (1977). Person-centered theory. In R.J. Corsini (Ed.),Current personality theories (pp. 125–151). Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacock.
Leach, J. (2009, November 20). Bridging cultures. Speech delivered by the Chairman ofNational Endowment for the Humanities to National Press Club. Retrieved November30th, 2009, from http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/speeches/11202009.html
Levi-Strauss, C. (1973). Tristes tropiques (Trans., J. & D. Weightman). New York: Atheneum.(Original work published 1955).
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Wilson, S. (2009, November 2). Shared interests define Obama’s world: In engagingadversaries, the president sometimes unsettles allies. The Washington Post. RetrievedNovember 2nd, 2009, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/01/AR2009110102604_pf.html
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