In the article, “Decolonizing Mental Health in the Polycrisis: Pathways Toward Neuro-Decolonization“, led by Dr. Cash Ahenakew and published in American Psychologist, we argue that the root causes of today’s social and ecological crises can be found in how modern society separates humanity from the rest of nature and creates relational hierarchies within humanity as well. Insights from Indigenous communities and decolonial scholars suggest that to address these crises in responsible ways, we will need to interrupt inherited patterns of separation and supremacy and reactivate peoples’ sense of connection and responsibility to other beings, both human and not. This article argues that neuro-decolonization offers a pathway for the field of psychology to acknowledge its role in systemic harm and support relational repair.
Article summary
The term “polycrisis” signifies the multifaceted crisis we are currently facing, which encompasses a range of interconnected challenges that threaten our well-being and the stability of our planet. This crisis encompasses ecological, social, economic, and mental health dimensions, all of which are intertwined and mutually influencing one another.
The mental health aspect of this polycrisis is particularly crucial to understand. It arises from the modern paradigm, rooted in colonialism. Colonialism is a powerful force that has imposed a profound sense of separation between humanity and the rest of nature. This separation has led to a sense of disconnection and hierarchy among species, cultures, and individuals, driven by the values of modern social and economic systems, including the commodification and financialization of nearly everything.
Unfortunately, these very social and economic systems are pushing our planet to its limits, surpassing six out of nine planetary boundaries—choking the atmosphere, warming the oceans, driving countless species to extinction, and destabilizing the climate.
Indigenous Peoples have known this for ages, and now some climate scientists and economists have begun to recognize the inherent contradiction in promising progress, prosperity, and endless consumption and production through economic growth on a finite planet. It’s no surprise that the polycrisis has been accompanied by a mental health crisis.
To explore this, we can examine two paradigms of mental health:
- Paradigm of Separability: In this paradigm, humans are viewed as separate from nature and from one another. It creates a nested system with individuals at the center, surrounded by communities, humanity, and the Earth. The focus is often on individual well-being and the avoidance of pain and discomfort.
- Paradigm of Entanglement: This paradigm acknowledges the inseparability of humans from the Earth’s ecological processes. Individuals are not at the center, but part of a complex, interconnected system, where all of life’s complexities are embodied within us, both physically and unconsciously.
Through the imposed severing of humans from the rest of nature, which creates hierarchies of value (subjugation) and cognitive, affective and relational neurodegenerative impairments (e.g. land as property/occupation, exploitation, expropriation, destitution, dispossession, ecocides and genocides), the paradigm of separability enacts neurocolonization, the process by which our ways of thinking, doing, hoping, relating and being, our affective physiological responses, and our libidinal attachments (how we source pleasure and comfort, and our fears and insecurities) are systematically wired, limited and impaired by modern-colonial systems.
Neuro-decolonization is the process of moving humanity towards relational intelligence and intergenerational accountability: facing complicity, navigating complexity, rewiring the unconscious, dis-investing in harm, mobilizing reparations and activating exiled capacities for sobriety, maturity, discernment and responsibility.
You can access the full article here (open-access): Ahenakew, C., Stein, S., Andreotti, V., Huni Kui, N. I., Taylor, L., Prince, S., Ramesh, J., Williams, C., Suša, R., Vukovic, R., & Diaz-Diaz, C. (2025). Decolonizing mental health in the polycrisis: Pathways toward neuro-decolonization.American Psychologist, 80(8), 1297–1312. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001540
In addition to reading the article, you can watch the recording of the presentation”Decolonizing Mental Health“, delivered at UBC on Oct 17, 2023.