A History of Psychology in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health

Abstract

OVERVIEW This chapter discusses the history of the discipline and practice of psychology in relation to the mental health of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It acknowledges that a history of cultural and institutionalised racism has meant that the profession has been part of the colonising process. The key engagements of psychology with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are outlined; these have led to the Indigenous mental health movement, which heralded a significant change in thinking about mental health—and, importantly, the empowerment and inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at all levels of mental health service provision. The chapter concludes with some important milestones in psychology and in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health, pointing to positive ways in which psychologists can work together to bring about improved social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing for Indigenous Australians. The chapter provides an historical account of the different ways that psychology has had an impact upon Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: through science, practice and advocacy. It discusses how each of the three domains intersect and interrelate and the different ways in which they affect our understanding of and responses to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 28 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.