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A Psychology of Liberation for Central America: The Unfinished Work of Ignacio Martín-Baró (1942–1989)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2013

José María Gondra
José María Gondra*
Affiliation:
Universidad del País Vasco (Spain)
*
*Correspondence concerning the article should be addressed to José María Gondra, Facultad de Psicología, Departamento de Procesos Psicológicos Básicos. Universidad del País Vasco; Avda. Tolosa, 70, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián (Spain). E-mail: josemaria.gondra@gmail.com
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Abstract

On November 16, 1989 the world was shocked by the news of the assassination of six Jesuits at the campus of the Universidad Centro Americana José Simeón Cañas (UCA) in San Salvador, El Salvador. Among those murdered by government soldiers was Ignacio Martín-Baró, a PhD in social psychology from the University of Chicago who at that time was the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and Vice-President of the Interamerican Society of Psychology (SIP). Drawing on Martín-Baró’s published writings and non-published academic papers and correspondence, this article traces the evolution of the Spanish-born Jesuit who became a leading authority among Latin American social psychologists. In particular, it analyzes his project of becoming a clinical psychologist under the influence of psychoanalysis, his critical social psychology aimed to “de-ideologize” the oppressed social classes of El Salvador, and his ultimate project of a psychology of liberation for Latin America. Martín-Baró’s work came to a tragic end just when it began to bear fruit, but it stands as a testimony to a lifetime committed to the human values of democracy, social justice and service to society’s poorest and most neglected.

Keywords

Martín-Barópsychology of liberation
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 16 , 2013 , E31
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2013 

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Footnotes

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the joint meeting of Cheiron and the European Society for the History of the Human Sciences, Dawson College, Montreal, Canada, July 2012. Translation of Martin-Baro’s texts by the author.

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