Deconstructing humanitarian compassion: Ψ as method

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper discusses humanitarian compassion within the Derridean notion of hospitality. Reflecting on the age of Imperial Humanitarianism where Evangelists formed administrative missions to save the souls of the slaves in the colonial provinces of Europe, it aims to address the link of compassion with Christianity and colonialism. Setting the Christian scene of humanitarianism, hospitality as a Derridean concept is introduced to depict that compassion and aid work in-between certain ‘guest and host’ territories. The impossibility of hospitality under these circumstances highlight the play of power relations in which the other is produced. While Derrida argues that hospitality cannot be power-balanced unless the language of the host is deconstructed, psychology in the humanitarian sector performs an ‘emotional hospitality’ which seeks to extract a story of confession. Ψ as method works to open a discussion on suffering, Christianity, and colonialism as a modern form of conversion: the confession of truth in a psychological discourse. Challenging compassion and aid as constituted in psychological discourse, this paper invites therapists to rethink the contextualisation under which these ideals emerged while introducing a discussion on what the language of psychology 'does' to refugees.