Institutional Racism in Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology: Race Matters in Mental Health (Contemporary Black History)

“The skillful blend of personal and professional reflections with careful historical analysis makes this a gripping and scholarly text. It should be compulsory reading for all psychiatry and clinical psychology trainees―because ‘race in mental health matters.’” (Nimisha Patel, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of East London, UK)

“Dr. Fernando’s reflections on his fifty years of involvement with mental health in post-war multicultural Britain cast an unforgiving light on this sector’s failure to confront its own racist assumptions. It makes for uncomfortable reading, but it is a history that we urgently need to understand if we are not to continue repeating it.” (David Ingleby, Centre for Social Science and Global Health, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

This book examines the deep roots of racism in the mental health system. Suman Fernando weaves the histories of racial discourse and clinical practice into a narrative of power, knowledge, and black suffering in an ostensibly progressive and scientifically grounded system. Drawing on a lifetime of experience as a practicing psychiatrist, he examines how the system has shifted in response to new forms of racism which have emerged since the 1960s, highlighting the widespread pathologization of black people, the impact of Islamophobia on clinical practice after 9/11, and various struggles to reform. Engaging and accessible, this book makes a compelling case for the entrenchment of racism across all aspects of psychiatry and clinical psychology, and calls for a paradigm shift in both theory and practice.