Course info

The heavy emphasis on the individual as the “unit of analysis and primary concern” (Bulhan, 1985) in current psychological science obscures the sociogenesis of human suffering and its salience in facilitating personal and social transformation. This introductory course shifts the focus away from the individual onto the dialectic of human psyche and socio-environmental world (Fanon, 1967, 1968), and using it as theoretical and practical approach to pastoral psychologies of liberation. More specifically, the course will engage students in expanding their capacity to critically examine and analyze contemporary psychological theories and their utility in the practice of pastoral care and counseling as well as the interlocking and intersectional expressions of oppression (i.e. racism, gender & sexism, classism, ableism, etc.) and their impact on psychological and collective consciousness. Through this, we will then venture into collectively re-imagining pastorally and practically what it me