> Ruling elites and power structures — from monarchies to military dictatorships to the U.S. corporatocracy — have routinely used “professionals” to control the population from rebelling against injustices so as to maintain the status quo. While power structures routinely rely on police and armies to subdue populations, they have also used clergy — thus, the need for liberation theology. And today, the U.S. corporatocracy uses mental health professionals to manipulate and medicate people to adjust and thereby maintain the status quo — thus, the need for liberation psychology.

> The U.S. corporatocracy, in order to control other nations — be they in Latin America, Native America, or elsewhere — has provided power and prestige for both individuals and institutions which meet the needs of the corporatocracy. Martin-Baró observed the following about North American psychology: “In order to get social position and rank, it negotiated how it would contribute to the needs of the established power structure.”

> The actions by U.S. psychologists and psychiatrists that contribute to the needs of the power structure for social position and rank have gotten even more blatant since Martin-Baró’s death....

> Even more powerful than positive-psychology manipulations in subverting resistance by soldiers to the U.S. military-industrial complex is the use of psychiatric drugs. According to the Navy Times in 2010, one in six U.S. armed service members were taking at least one psychiatric drug, many of these medicated soldiers in combat zones...

> In contrast to mainstream psychology, liberation psychology — which Martin-Baró helped popularize — challenges adjustment to an unjust societal status quo and energizes oppressed people to resist injustices. Liberation psychology attempts to help subjugated and demoralized people regain the energy necessary to recover the power that they have handed over to illegitimate authorities (see Get Up, Stand Up).

> Martin-Baró knew that there are political consequences to mainstream psychology’s restricting its research to quantifiable variables. He pointed out that when knowledge is limited to only quantifiable facts and events, we “become blind to the most important meanings of human existence.” Human dimensions such as commitment, solidarity, hope, and courage cannot be simplistically quantified but are what enable human beings to overcome injustice.

madinamerica.com/2014/11/assas…

#BruceLevine with #IgnacioMartinBaro #LiberationPsychology

Why an Assassinated Psychologist — Ignored by U.S. Psychologists — Is Being Honored - Mad In America

On November 16, 1989 in El Salvador, liberation psychologist Ignacio Martin-Baró was murdered by a Salvadoran government’s “counter-insurgency unit” created at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas.

^{Bruce Levine, PhD (Mad In America)}