Psychotherapy in post-colonial SA: exploring attitudes, views and beliefs of rural ‘black’ communities on psychotherapy

Mthembu, Thembekile Thobeka

Title: Psychotherapy in post-colonial SA: exploring attitudes, views and beliefs of rural ‘black’ communities on psychotherapy
Creator: Mthembu, Thembekile Thobeka
Subject: Black people -- Attitudes -- South Africa
Subject: Black people -- Psychology -- South Africa
Subject: Black people -- Mental health -- South Africa
Subject: Psychotherapy -- South Africa
Subject: Client-centered psychotherapy -- South Africa
Subject: Rural families -- South Africa
Date Issued: 2019
Date: 2019
Type: text
Type: Thesis
Type: Masters
Type: MA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/71419
Identifier: vital:29847
Description: The appropriateness and effectiveness of the field of psychology and its branch psychotherapy has been met with fierce criticisms especially in contexts outside of Western or Euro American or urban Southern Africa. This thesis explores attitudes, views and beliefs of rural ‘black’ communities on psychotherapy (the healing process of the mind and soul). It is important to understand how the healing process of the mind and soul is constructed and practised in South African black rural communities, and this remains an imperative of psychology. The study takes an exploratory qualitative research approach. Nine participants from two rural communities in Kwa-Zulu Natal were interviewed through face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was utilised as a method of data analysis. The study employed social constructionism and Afrocentricity as theoretical points of departure. The findings were understood through employing Afrocentricity theory underpinned by post-colonial theory. Four main themes were derived with supporting subthemes. The themes indicate that rural black communities’ attitudes, views, and beliefs on psychotherapy are at variance with the Western perspective of psychotherapy. This is further associated with the practise of psychotherapy in rural black communities. The findings of this study can possibly assist in new understandings of psychotherapy as constructed in different contexts and instigate future research to be conducted in often-neglected areas such as rural communities.
Format: 93 pages
Format: pdf
Publisher: Rhodes University
Publisher: Faculty of Humanities, Psychology
Language: English
Rights: Mthembu, Thembekile Thobeka

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