A synopsis of South African psychology from apartheid to democracy.

Abstract

In this concatenated overview, the development of psychology in South Africa is traced from its origins in the late 19th century to the present. The seminal influences on the science and practice of psychology of the racialized polity and the responses to the prevailing regimen are also explored. The significant events in the patinated layers of psychological discourse and consequent policies in these constrained circumstances are traversed. Despite the nonracial era occasioned by the formation of the Psychological Society of South Africa three months before the advent of democracy under Nelson Mandela in 1994, the profession of psychology remains demographically skewed. Nevertheless, psychology in the current democratic dispensation enjoys a high profile and is actively engaged in ongoing and reflexive self-examination to ensure that it is more accessible and truly serves humanity. If Africa is psychology's last frontier, the critical denouement of the various issues confronting psychology in the southern tip of the African continent will provide a positive growth path that is likely to merit attention beyond its borders.