Liberation Psychology and Related Movements

26 Sep, 2025

Here's a long, detailed summary of liberation psychology, with its core ideas, origins, and the other movements or intellectual traditions it connects to.

I’ll also map out related or similar approaches in psychology, pedagogy, and social sciences.

What is Liberation Psychology?

Liberation psychology (psicología de la liberación) is a critical psychological approach founded by Ignacio Martín-Baró (1942–1989), a Spanish–Salvadoran Jesuit priest, social psychologist, and martyr assassinated during the Salvadoran civil war.

It emerged in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s as a response to two main problems:

1. Imported psychology: Most psychology in the region was imported from the United States and Europe, focusing on the individual in isolation, and applying theories without considering local historical, cultural, and political realities.
2. Context of oppression: Latin America was (and still is) marked by authoritarian governments, civil wars, poverty, systemic violence, and inequality. Psychology that only aimed to “adapt” people to unjust realities was seen as complicit with oppression.

Martín-Baró argued that psychology cannot be neutral: by ignoring structural injustice, it serves the status quo. He insisted that psychology must take the side of the oppressed and marginalized, and help them liberate themselves from internalized oppression and social domination.

Core Principles of Liberation Psychology

1. Context matters Human suffering must be understood in its historical, social, political, and economic context. For example, depression cannot be explained solely by “personal pathology” if people live in extreme poverty or under repression.

2. Conscientization (concientización) Borrowed from Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed, this means helping people become critically aware of the conditions of their oppression and their own capacity to transform them.

3. De-ideologization Many dominant narratives blame individuals for problems that have systemic causes (“you’re poor because you’re lazy”). Liberation psychology aims to unmask ideology and show the structural roots of suffering.

4. Historical memory Healing requires remembering and narrating collective trauma (wars, massacres, colonization), not erasing it. Memory helps resist manipulation and empowers communities.

5. Praxis and transformation Psychology is not just for diagnosis or treatment, but also for action. It should help communities organize, resist oppression, and create conditions of justice and dignity.

6. Community over individual Liberation psychology emphasizes collective wellbeing, solidarity, and community resilience, in contrast to individualistic approaches.

7. Critical stance The psychologist’s role is to take a side — with the oppressed, not with neutrality that reinforces oppression.

Key Terms Associated with Liberation Psychology

• Conscientization (Freirean concept): Critical awareness + action.
• Internalized oppression: The way the oppressed absorb dominant ideologies that justify their subordination.
• Praxis: Reflection + action together; healing and liberation require both.
• Historical memory: Active process of recovering the truth of past violence and injustice.
• De-ideologization: Revealing and dismantling dominant explanations that justify inequality.

Movements and Approaches Connected to Liberation Psychology

Liberation psychology is not isolated; it is part of a wider family of critical, emancipatory approaches. Some connections include:

1. Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Paulo Freire)

• Directly inspired Martín-Baró.
• Focused on education as a tool for liberation through dialogue, critical awareness, and co-creation of knowledge.

2. Liberation Theology

• A Christian (mainly Catholic) movement in Latin America (1960s–70s) that interpreted faith through the struggle of the poor and oppressed.
• Martín-Baró, being a Jesuit, was deeply influenced by this.

3. Critical Psychology

• A European/North American movement that critiques mainstream psychology’s role in reproducing power and inequality.
• Liberation psychology is often considered a branch of critical psychology, but with stronger roots in Latin American praxis.

4. Community Psychology

• Shares focus on prevention, empowerment, and collective wellbeing.
• Liberation psychology radicalizes it by explicitly situating it in political struggle and decolonial thinking.

5. Decolonial Thought and Postcolonial Theory

• Related through the critique of Eurocentric knowledge systems.
• Emphasizes valuing local knowledges, indigenous traditions, and challenging colonial legacies in psychology.

6. Critical Pedagogy and Popular Education

• Movements in education inspired by Freire, focusing on participatory, dialogical, and empowering teaching methods.

7. Social Justice and Multicultural Counseling

• In North America, liberation psychology resonates with feminist therapy, multicultural counseling, and social justice-oriented therapy, though those tend to be less explicitly political.

8. Participatory Action Research (PAR)

• A research methodology developed by Orlando Fals-Borda and others, where communities co-create knowledge to transform their realities.
• Liberation psychology often uses PAR as its research strategy.

9. Theatre of the Oppressed (Augusto Boal)

• A participatory theatre method where communities dramatize their oppression and rehearse solutions.
• Used widely as a liberatory psychological tool.

Similar or Related Terms

• Liberation pedagogy — Freire’s educational philosophy.
• Emancipatory psychology — another term used in English for similar ideas.
• Critical community psychology — overlaps with liberation psychology.
• Psychologies of liberation — broader category (Watkins & Shulman) that includes liberation psychology, feminist psychology, indigenous psychologies, decolonial psychologies.
• Radical psychology — umbrella term for approaches that challenge the mainstream status quo.
• Social justice-oriented psychotherapy — clinical practice focused on advocacy and systemic change.

Why It Matters Today

Liberation psychology continues to be relevant in contexts of:

• Migration, displacement, and refugee trauma.
• Systemic racism, sexism, and ableism.
• Poverty and neoliberal globalization.
• Historical trauma and memory (e.g., truth commissions).
• Community-based healing after violence or natural disasters.

Its motto could be summarized as: 👉 There is no mental health without justice.