Becoming psychologists in Ecuador: A critical ethnography of trainees´ professional identity Manuel Andrés Capella Palacios A Thesis submitted for the research degree of PhD University College London (UCL) 2019 1 2 I, Manuel Andrés Capella Palacios confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. _________________________ Manuel Andrés Capella Palacios 3 4 Abstract This thesis is an ethnography of the way psychologists construct their professional identities during their training in a State-funded Ecuadorian University, approached from the perspective of Critical Psychology. Considering the field´s theoretical bias, critical psychologists have called for qualitative data that contribute to ongoing discussions. Responsive to such call, this thesis asked the question: “How do psychologists in contemporary Ecuador construct their professional identity?” The author conducted a twelve-month critical ethnography, focusing on a particular training facility as a strategic site; from there, the inquiry extended to so-called “vulnerable” and “marginal” places, where trainees performed their preprofesional and professional roles. Findings highlight how the negotiation of professional identity is a “messy”, subject-dependent and context-dependent process shaped by power. Trainees dwelled between the coloniality of hegemonic psychology, and a – mostly veiled - cultural resistance to it. They embodied a “dual belonging”, being members of “professional” and “popular” worlds simultaneously. Trainees learned a “help-as-war” metaphor: utilising foreign theories and methods to help allegedly ignorant and in-deficit subjects, even if this implied disrespecting their culture and needs. To unpack the local professional – popular interactions which shape – and are shaped by - professional identity, the author suggests the working category of “liminal exchanges”, which integrates classic Freirean conceptualisations with relevant anthropological insights regarding gift giving. Findings stress the need to construct a more critical psychology training, one which acknowledges the “messiness” of professional identity and responds more congruently to the culture and needs of the people. This would require in-group and intergroup processes of conscientización; reinforcing our commitment with social justice while avoiding unfruitful purism; accepting enabling contradictions; and articulating the fight for structural transformations with small-scale performative changes. The ethnographic evidence presented in the thesis has significant implications for ongoing debates within Critical Psychology and related fields, at a local and global scale. 5 6 Impact statement Psychology has shown a rising popularity worldwide, illustrating its potential to understand and help people, but also to engage in cultural violence. In the field of Critical Psychology, debates tackling such issue revolve around numerous theoretical and ethical-political arguments, which do not seem to be matched with a proportional discussion of robust qualitative evidence on specific subjects who are professionalised as psychologists. This thesis is among the few exceptions to this, as it presents ethnographic data from a particular context in the Global South – Guayaquil, Ecuador – and revisits critical debates regarding professional identity at the light of such lived experience. Its impact is threefold, as the following paragraphs will illustrate. Firstly, local and global academic discussion regarding psychology and psychologists is expected to benefit from new ways of thinking about professional identity, guided by analytical categories derived from this thesis: dual belonging; the help-as-war- metaphor; and liminal exchanges. Both hegemonic and critical scholars can find it potentially useful to know that psychologists construct “messy” identities, shaped by the market, the State and intersubjectivity, a situated analysis that seems to be potentialised by avoiding unfruitful purism and dichotomist thinking. Such data-driven idea may be relevant to virtually all fields across the social sciences, with a special significance for helping professions such as education, psychology and psychiatry, among others. Practitioners of such fields will be able to think on the way the construction of their professional identity shapes their interactions with the people they serve, and vice versa. Hopefully, the thesis will stimulate further research on the subject, as well as shape public discourse regarding psychology and related professions. Secondly, to highlight the apparent incongruence between a training shaped by coloniality vis a vis local cultures and needs – as suggested by the evidence presented here - can be beneficial for groups in power within universities. They may find it useful to transform training programmes into more critical and reflexive spaces, promoting the wellbeing of both trainees and the wider communities they will serve as professionals. The thesis even suggests a broad proposal for how this programme may look like, as a possible input for further, situated, dialogical processes leading to decision-making. Such dialogues and reforms will not revolutionise psychology, but are a plausible step forward for the critique and transformation of the discipline. 7 Thirdly, policy-makers in Ecuador and other latitudes may find the ethnographic data and analyses presented in the thesis beneficial. Based on these – and on further research -, the State could consider possible reforms to public policy, especially in the fields of higher education, social inclusion and mental health, which will depend on political will and the specific needs of each context. If this occurs – changes in policy, training, and more nuanced data-driven academic dialogues – psychology can potentially become a more critical, culturally-sensitive and transformative field. This would not be achieved only – nor primarily - for the benefit of psychologists, but for that of the wider society which they are expected to understand and transform. 8 Acknowledgments This thesis could not be possible if it were not for the generous contribution of all local participants in Guayaquil, Ecuador. My gratitude to the Faculty of Psychological Sciences at the University of Guayaquil, for its permanent support during the study. I want to thank every administrator, teacher, student, maintenance worker and informal worker who generously interacted with me during field work, and allowed me access to their everyday lives. Thanks to all the local professionals who supported this project. My gratitude to the non-psychologists from “the community” who – both inside and outside campus - shared their narratives and experiences with me. Thank you “John”, and many others. A heart-felt thank you to one of the communities affected by the April 2016 Earthquake in Manabí, who shared with us the scarce food they had; I will always remember the words I heard from you after our “liminal” exchange: “you pay kindness with kindness”. A big thank you to my supervisors at UCL, Sushrut Jadhav and Joanna Moncrieff, not only for their amazing and constant support, but for being true role models. Hopefully, your critical ideas will continue to inspire cross-cultural dialogues around the world. I would also like to thank the generosity of several other scholars who spared some of their time and wisdom to discuss a few ideas with me – in both formal and casual contexts - even if it was for a brief moment. I wish I could name all of you. Specially, I would like to thank David Goldberg, Roland Littlewood, Joe Calabrese, Derek Summerfield, James Wilson, Maan Barua, Sumeet Jain, Mitra Mukherjee Parikh, Ian Parker, Erica Burman, among many others. My appreciation to Florentino Moreno and José Luis Alvaro, who gave me valuable advice at the start of my PhD. Thanks to all the brilliant scholars who directly or indirectly contributed to this thesis. Many thanks to UCL, and to my colleagues at the Division of Psychiatry. I appreciate everyone´s support. I especially appreciate the help and feedback of those who had been closer to my work, either theoretically or methodologically, including Clement Bayetti, Nanda Kishore Kannuri, Henry Llewellyn, Tarek Younis, Sebastien Libert, Taghrid Al Qunaibet, Nilisha Vashist, among other bright researchers. I also want to thank the Division´s administrative staff, for their constant support. On a different note, thanks to everyone –inside and outside UCL – who helped me “polish” my language skills, which is always challenging for a non-native English speaker like myself. 9 My gratitude to the Ecuadorian people, and the State policies and agencies that offered me – as thousands of other Ecuadorians - the opportunity to access funds, and conduct socially relevant academic research; I am grateful for the scholarship awarded by National Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (SENESCYT) / Institute for the Promotion of Human Talent (“Convocatoria Abierta 2013”). I would also like to thank my family and friends. Unfortunately, I cannot name everyone who, in one way or another, contributed to this thesis. Just to name a few, I truly appreciate the support of Adriana Santos, Jorge Armanza, Lorena Triviño and Daniela Cattan, who encouraged me – each in their own way – to pursue this PhD. Thanks to my friends in London, especially Mark, Christine, Pierrick, Keyleen, Mara and Nuno. My gratitude