Is a system that leaves people with nothing left to lose in any way worth supporting?
violence
Posted inNews/Politics
Our responses to social unrest and structural uncertainty are not enough
Social protection strategies that emphasise systemic responses only to ‘livelihood shocks and uncertainties’ hardly take into account the ways in which poverty and unemployment are produced and reproduced in South Africa
Posted inHealth
Why doctors dread the days the country celebrates
‘Big’ days in sport — or even just weekends — almost always spell an increase in trauma and gender violence. One doctor remembers a day she had to put her compassion aside
Posted inNews/Politics
Please minister explain the disconnected SAPS and the banning of guns for self defence
A dishonest police leadership has no concrete strategy for dealing with crime and corruption within its own ranks
Posted inEquality, Media, News/Politics
Freedom@27: Layered, elusive, and personal
Four psychologists reflect on what liberty means to them, their patients and the country
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Health
Working with men towards ending violence and promoting positive masculinities
By Refiloe Makama & Sipho Dlamini Violence has remained a longstanding characteristic of the country. Gender-based violence (or more accurately: violence perpetuated by men against women and children and other male persons) appears to be on the rise, xenophobic attacks spring up all around the country, and other contact crimes saw an increase in the […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, General, Health, Media, News/Politics
Why women suffer in our society
I have written about the position of women in our patriarchal society from various perspectives on this site several times before – in the context of guns and violence against them, on a fundamental level on the link between patriarchy, writing and images, on why one should respect women for their extraordinary qualities, and on […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Health, Lifestyle, Media
Do we still need an International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia?
By Pierre Brouard Do we still need an International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT), to draw attention to the violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and all other people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions, and sex characteristics? If this year’s events I attended are […]
Posted inEquality, General, Health, News/Politics
Inequality and violent protests in South Africa
In 2014 I wrote a piece for this site on the work of psychoanalyst, Paul Verhaeghe, specifically the book in which he writes about the link between inequality in a market-based society and health problems across a wide spectrum. In addition to stress and anxiety symptoms, Verhaeghe pointed to something confirmed by other researchers too, […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
The Tshwane protests, Freud and how to control a crowd
It is regrettable that so many thinking people today – even those in the discipline of psychology – regard the work of the founder of psychoanalysis (which is by no means synonymous with psychology) as being of no more than historical importance, and Sigmund Freud himself as a historical curiosity. And yet, Freud is more […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, News/Politics
Violence is a necessary process of decolonisation
By Zinhle Manzini On February 25 it was reported that two buildings and a car were burnt at the North West University Mafikeng campus, yet this incident is not the only occurrence of violence that has disrupted some of South Africa’s universities. One would recall that a bus was also set alight a week ago […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Are violent protests cleansing, like Fanon said?
By Liezille Jacobs and Julian Jacobs Frantz Fanon, often referred to as the psychiatrist who prescribed violence, would turn in his grave at the condemnation of the student protests because he believed overcoming oppression could be realised through a violent uprising of the masses. Fanon said the slave thinks of overthrowing his master while being […]