The power to promote wellness, resist oppression, and foster liberation is grounded in psychological and political dynamics. Hitherto, these two sources of power have been treated in isolation, both for descriptive and prescriptive purposes. As a result, we lack an integrative theory that explains the role of power in promoting human welfare and preventing suffering, and we lack a framework for combining psychological and political power for the purpose of social change. In this article, the author puts forth a psychopolitical conceptualization of power, wellness, oppression, and liberation. Furthermore, he introduces the concept of psychopolitical validity, which is designed to help community psychologists to put power issues at the forefront of research and action. Two types of psychopolitical validity are introduced: type I—epistemic, and type II—transformative. Whereas the former demands that psychological and political power be incorporated into community psychology studies; the latter requires that interventions move beyond ameliorative efforts and towards structural change. & 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The role of power in wellness, oppression, and liberation: the promise of psychopolitical validity

The National Empowerment Project (NEP) is an innovative Aboriginal-led community-based project. Since 2012, it has been working with communities in 11 sites across Australia to develop a culturally appropriate health promotion and primary prevention intervention strategy to reduce the high rates of psychological distress and suicide among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The NEP is built around the use of localized participatory action research (PAR) processes to support communities to identify key factors negatively impacting on their lives as well as strategies for promoting well-being and building resilience. This article details the application of the PAR approach by the NEP Aboriginal community-based researchers. It provides some unique insights into how PAR facilitated communities to have a voice and the ways in which it supported important change processes at both an individual and a community level.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1609406917699515

Facilitating Empowerment and Self-Determination Through Participatory Action Research: Findings From the National Empowerment Project

Participatory action research with self-help/mutual aid organizations for psychiatric consumer/survivors is reviewed. We begin by tracing the origins of and defining both participatory action research and self-help/mutual aid. In so doing, the degree of correspondence between the assumptions/values of participatory action research and those of self-help/mutual aid for psychiatric consumer/survivors is examined. We argue that participatory action research and self-help/mutual aid share four values in common: (a) empowerment, (b) supportive relationships, (c) social change, and (d) learning as an ongoing process. Next, selected examples of participatory action research with psychiatric consumer/survivor-controlled self-help/mutual aid organizations which illustrate these shared values are provided. We conclude with recommendations of how the key values can be promoted in both the methodological and substantive aspects of future participatory action research with self-help/mutual aid organizations for psychiatric consumer/survivors.

http://www.johnlord.net/web_documents/nothing_about_me__without_me.pdf

“Nothing About Me, Without Me”: Participatory Action Research with Self-Help/Mutual Aid Organizations for Psychiatric Consumer/Survivors

The literature on powerlessness, empowerment and control tends to be adult-centric and psycho-centric. It is adult-centric in that most studies deal with the experience of powerlessness in adults or interpret children's realities from an adult point of view. At the same time, the literature is quite psycho-centric in that it focuses on the emotional and cognitive dimensions of powerlessness, to the relative neglect of social and political power. The purpose of this article is to redress these biases and elucidate the role of power and control in pathways toward health, resilience and problems in children's lives. We define wellness as a satisfactory state of affairs, brought about by the acquisition and development of material and psychological resources, participation and self-determination, competence and self-efficacy. Power and control are defined as opportunities afforded by social, community, and family environments to develop these three dimensions of health and wellness. We highlight basic research which describes pathways toward wellness, resilience, and problems in life, as well as applied research on promising interventions to improve children's health and wellness. This literature is interpreted in terms of our conceptual framework that links power/control and wellness through the three dimensions that we have proposed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The role of power and control in children's lives: An ecological analysis of pathways toward wellness, resilience and problems

While both postindustrial and emerging states face economic, cultural, and political changes, the constant of oppression remains. Economically and culturally marginalized groups continue to endure untold degrees of suffering. From a moral point of view, it is imperative that social scientists attend to the needs of the oppressed This paper examines the dynamics of oppression in postindustrial and emerging states from both a psychological and political perspective. The reality of oppression may be understood from various levels of analysis, from the macrolevel of global economic and political structures, to the microlevel of internalized psychological images of inferiority. A comprehensive analysis of oppression will emerge only from an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the political with the psychological. Otherwise, efforts to reduce conditions of oppression will be inhibited by limited perspectives that neglect either the internal or external domains. We explore some of the psychological mechanisms accounting for oppression, such as learned helplessness, internalization of hegemonic self-rejecting views, and obedience to authority. Some of the political mechanisms accounting for oppression in emerging countries include the oppressive structure of international financial systems and internal colonization. We conclude by outlining the process of conscientization necessary to overcome conditions of oppression at all levels of analysis.

Polities Change, Oppression Remains: on the Psychology and Politics of Oppression

This article describes a research study completed on the process of empowerment. Conducted with 55 men and women who had experienced extensive powerlessness in their lives, qualitative interviews and focus groups were designed to understand participants' lived experiences as they struggled toward increased control in their lives. Several themes were identified, including elements which provided an impetus for empowerment and the importance of support from people. As the empowerment process unfolded, access to valued resources and participation in community life reduced isolation and contributed to the competence and confidence of participants. Several implications for the concept of empowerment are identified such as self-efficacy and personal control; and principles for community practice are outlined. This study confirms the importance of understanding empowerment from an ecological perspective.

http://johnlord.net/Power%20Empowerment%20Partnerships%20Advocacy/CJCMH/Process%20of%20Empowerment.pdf

LordJohn

Papers

The Process of Empowerment: Implications for Theory and Practice