The Reproduction of Racism in South African Mental Health Care

Abstract

In an attempt to avoid reproducing apartheid ideology, some South African psychologists have tended to minimize cultural differences and emphasize universalism. Relativism and universalism in practice, though, are closely intertwined as an analysis of some local transcultural psychiatry literature shows. Similarly, racist and nonracist mental health care occur together in certain contexts. The development of less racist mental health care in South Africa will depend not solely on the rejection of racism but also on the recognition that traditions of racism are woven into the fabric of care.