Explorations and reflections: on envisioning the psychosocial clinical programmes at the School of Human Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi, India

Abstract

In the early years of psychology’s history, creative thinkers in different pockets across the world experimented with innovative ways of envisioning the field of psychological enquiry. Over time, in its pursuit to establish for itself a status akin to that of the ‘natural sciences’, psychology lost links with its introspective beginnings and came to be largely identified as a study of ‘human behavior’ and its effects. Since the last three decades, like other social scientists, psychologists too have gone through much creative tension. As a consequence, marginal but extremely significant bodies of work have pressed for subjective, critical, cultural and non-Eurocentric modes of humanness to be considered as valid domains of psychological enquiry. The endeavour has been to outline the dimensions of a psychological human science which is contextually sensitive, is in line with the spirit of decolonalization of knowledge and which can relate to the intricacies of the human unconscious. The present writing focuses on one such radical exploration in India in the recent past. It concerns itself with the envisioning and setting up of the Psychosocial Clinical programmes at School of Human Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi. The essay includes a brief account of intellectual influences on, and the past work history, of pioneers who imagined the Psychosocial Clinical axis in the Indian context. The writing also focuses on the distinctive features of the Psychosocial Clinical perspective at the School of Human Studies, and on the methodological, practice oriented and pedagogical challenges and considerations in the training of a reflexive psychological practitioner, researcher and thinker.