Counseling as Colonization?: Native American Encounters with the Clinical Psy-ences

Harvard FAS

American Indian, First Nations, and other Indigenous communities of the USA and Canada contend with disproportionately high rates of “psychiatric” distress. Many of these communities attribute this distress to their long colonial encounters with European settlers. Concurrently, throughout the 20th century, the disciplines and professions associated with mind, brain, and behavior (e.g., psychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychology) consolidated their authority and influence within mainstream…