INTRODUCTION

I will present this paper within my own lens of perceiving Critical Psychology as a subject that revolves around the definition and systems of the mainstream Schools of Psychology. A mention of Psychology brings to the mind of the non-professional, an expert ability of one to read the mind, while academics quickly think about the numerous theories, all advanced in the West, as forming the benchmarks of the definition. Fox (2000) concurs that there are still unresolved issues of definition of what exactly constitutes or defines critical psychology and emphasizes focus areas that critical psychologists ought to bring into the field. According to him, these different voices of emphasis should be the critical psychologists’ meeting as well as their points of departure in their quest to pursue shared goals using different routes (http://www.dennisfox.net). Consequent to Fox’s argument, I bring into the subject matter of Critical psychology a different focus and the often question claim as to the origin of psychological knowledge.

Most theories of Psychology stemmed from laborious laboratory research which was later documented as the underpinnings of Psychological thought. Moreover, these theories and psychological thought are imports, mainly from the West. The result has been a consumer-oriented Psychology consumed whole and reproduced completely. In addition, there has been a tendency by most scholars to base their arguments thereof on these same principles and underpinnings.

Consequently, what is crucially evident in the current realms of psychology is the overgeneralization that human behaviour stems from similar thought patterns expected to elicit same behaviour patterns. On the contrary, the Nandi Psyche was more pro-active than retroactive, expressed through proverbs punctuating communication. The Nandi seemed to have had a unique identity or at least wanted to be identified so. For example, much of their expressive language as discerned through interviews emphasizes this identity. With reference to this perceived unique identity are innumerable phrases “we the Nandi” that punctuated the participants’ conversation. Westen (1996: 3) seems to acknowledge the universality and yet culturally unique complexity of human nature when he concedes that “to understand psychology requires a constant movement between the micro-level of biology and the micro-level of culture” and that to understand Psychology is to intersect Biology with culture.