Geraldine Moane,Gender and Colonialism: A Psychological Analysis of Oppression and Liberation (2 nd edition)

Reviewed by: Manasi Kumar, University of Nairobi, Kenya

This is the second edition of Geraldine Moane’s book Gender and Colonialism and as such it presents a wide coverage of influences from within feminism, psychology and postcolonial theory. The first four chapters make for a dense and exciting read and the next five chapters discuss different scenarios, interventions and specific postures and possibilities for change. The first chapter ‘Women, Psychology and Society: The Personal is Political’ lays out, as the title suggests, links between women and sociality, with personal change as a primary indicator and precursor to political action. On the first page itself Moane describes her primary concern as ‘…‥ to explore the connections between psychological patterns and the political and social conditions associated with oppression and liberation’ (p. 1). She adds that her aim ‘is to first develop an understanding of how social conditions, particularly oppressive social conditions, can create debilitating psychological patterns, often referred to as ‘internalized oppression’, and secondly, to identify processes and practices, which can aid in transforming oppressive psychological and social patterns and attaining liberation’ (p. 1). This is in essence the sort of awareness that the book tries to achieve in the nine chapters over which it is spread. Moane argues throughout the first few chapters that traditional psychological analyses pathologize women’s internalized oppression and neglect structural factors, and she suggests that ‘personal and psychological factors as well as social conditions play a role in both oppression and liberation’ (p. 2). Two interesting remarks are made here in relation to the feminist engagement with individual psychological experiences. Moane suggests that feminist analyses have at times tended to ignore the isolated personal experience of particular individuals and that the early women’s liberation movement, and certainly traditional psychology, undermines the impact of the personal and how it shapes liberal political choices (p. 4). Moane analyzes the psychology of colonialism, oppression and patriarchy systematically by looking at the critical psychological and political psychological scholarship on these thematics from within psychology. In doing so, she builds up a connection between colonialism as replicating patriarchy (in the form of a dominant group and a subordinate one) and the cycle of oppression.

In describing the scope of her work, a theme that gets discussed fully in the following two chapters (Chapter 2, Hierarchical Systems: Colonialism and Patriarchy and Chapter 3, The Psychological Patterns Associated with Hierarchical Systems: The Cycle of Oppression), Moane adds another layer to her analysis: ‘psychological patterns are shaped by social conditions, and social conditions must be conceptualized at the macro levels as well as community and micro levels’ (p. 21). She claims that the insights from these units of analyses would be transformative and liberation psychology could be understood and developed further. These two chapters outline the relationship between hierarchies and the dynamics of domination-subordination, and identify social patterns by which hierarchy is implemented and maintained. They do so through historical analyses of patriarchy and colonialism. She discusses six modes of control that are crucial to the analyses and contextualization of the Irish colonial past and the women’s movement discussed: violence, political exclusion, economic exploitation, cultural control, control of sexuality and divide & rule’ (p. 36). Each of these modes of control is described in its gendered and politico-personal context, situating it in the dynamics of patriarchy and domination (mainly in a western context). In Chapter 3, Moane examines the psychological patterns that emanate from the conditions described above, namely, fear, restriction, powerlessness, insecurity, distortions of sexuality, sense of inferiority, isolation etc. (p. 57). In terms of spelling out the psychology of oppression she indicates lasting patterns such as duality of consciousness, horizontal hostility, patterns of dissimulation and loss of history as significant thematics that need further exploration (p. 84). In this section she reviews works of feminist and postcolonial writers who have influenced psychology directly such as bell hooks, Cathleen O’Neill, Suzanne Pharr. Others such as Franz Fanon, Albert Memmi, Vincent Kenny, Ashis Nandy, Paulo Friere and Durans are revisited to address issues around oppression and liberation psychology.

Chapter 4 Breaking out: the Cycle of Liberation, by contrast, examines liberation psychologies and ways of challenging and resisting domination and subjugation. Using works of writers discussed earlier and others like Mary Daly, Starhawk and Martin-Baro, tasks of liberation are stressed. Liberation, claims Moane in discussing Mary Daly, involves undoing the ‘mindbindings’ and ‘psychic numbing’ to which women are subjected, reconnecting with ‘Original self’ and creating new consciousness (p. 97). Another task is that of de-ideologization, or development of critical consciousness (p. 108) and Daly highlights the value of analysis carried out through action (p. 110). Quite aptly, Moane says that the psychological processes are developmental in character, ‘involving change over time which may occur in small incremental steps, and some changes cannot occur until other changes are in place’ (p. 111) and she reminds us of the three tiers in which change has to be understood: personal, interpersonal and political.

Chapters 5, 6 and 7 explicate the Personal, Interpersonal and Political levels. Building strengths, making connections and taking action are Moane’s suggestions in implementing liberation from psychic oppression, colonialism and patriarchy. Chapter 7 makes significant leaps with a discussion of structures of power, structural factors and participation in organized political movements and campaigns, examination of class, ethnicity and other dimensions of oppression that operate through control of political and other institutions and also through economic disenfranchisement (p. 174).

Chapter 8, Liberation Psychologies in Action: Local and Global Example, looks at Moane’s own outreach engagements and development of courses and workshops in liberation psychology. She has tried implementing the theoretical framework she has discussed and used participatory methodology and pedagogy in Ireland. To this discussion she ties in psychologies of liberation, elaborating on scholarship in other parts of the world and the Latin American and South African contributions in particular.

Chapter 9, Interconnections between Personal and Political Change: Towards an Egalitarian Society, is an exposition on liberation psychology and emancipatory practice. Moane’s suggestion is that the discourse needs to be critical of hierarchical and traditional psychological approaches but at the same time it also needs to be participatory and open to varied experiences, where practitioners will interrogate their own privilege, developing awareness about dominator practices (p. 209). It should recognize the value of structural factors but also be context sensitive and follow the specificity principle that is ‘linked to the appreciation of diversity and unique perspectives and experiences of different individuals and groups’ (p. 210). There are several other interjections she makes such as employing a bottoms-up approach, being relational and collective, according significance to analysis, which is, linking subjective experience to social reality. Moane emphasizes a global perspective that recognizes and links global to local conditions such that thinking through oppression and liberation is made possible.

The only concerns I have about this otherwise well researched book are, firstly, at times it spoke only about women as subjected and oppressed and, though it provided varied colonial frameworks that described the rigmarole of a mutually exploitative oppressor–oppressed cycle, it seemed to mainly speak for/about women’s oppression. Secondly, the author’s own study interviewing women activists (described in chapter 5) remained a bit hazy about details and, although Moane constantly made attempts to link ideas to the themes she touched upon in the beginning four chapters, as a reader, I did not have sufficient clarity about why these activists were interviewed and what the interview process was like in its bare bones.

All the same, Moane presents well-reasoned and systematic analyses of the roots and psychological dynamics of oppression, as well as liberation, that in some senses provides a template for carrying out further work on the themes of social justice and raising political consciousness, critical psychology and the psychology of colonialism which should fuel further work in liberation psychology. This book should certainly inspire practitioners and students of psychology everywhere; it will also be useful material for teaching and research in critical, feminist and liberation psychology courses.