THE COLONIAL MINDSET

This is a revised paper of one recently published in IScot magazine.

The Colonial Mindset

Understanding why a colonized people ‘crave dependence’ and oppose their own liberation

Alf Baird

Postcolonial theory

Little if anything has been written about the psychodynamics of Scottish independence. This is surprising given what postcolonial theory tells us occurs to the ‘minds’ of a subjugated people during colonization and in their subsequent struggle for independence and national liberation.

Frantz Fanon explained how “colonial domination” involves and requires “the systematic negation of the other person”. This forces the colonized people to ask themselves the question: “who am I?”. Even during “lengthy calm periods of ‘successful’ colonization (such as Scots have been subject to since the mid-18^th century) a regular and important mental pathology is the direct product of oppression”.

Colonialism acts to “depersonalize the individual also in the collective sphere on the level of social structures”. Lacking in authority or confidence in a colonial society, the colonized become bystanders rather than active participants. The more assimilated develop, according to Dr. David Purves: “a schizoid element into the national psyche, denying the true-self in favour of a false persona”.

Albert Memmi noted that assimilated natives may push “a colonial mentality to excess, (and) display proud disdain for the colonized”. Impressed with their privileges “they savor them and defend them with fear and harshness; and when colonization is imperilled, they provide it with its most dynamic defenders, its shock troops, and sometimes its instigators”. This also relates to native elites and representatives of the authorities recruited from among the colonized as colonial ‘functionaries’ and as ‘watchdogs’. Thus, the assimilated natives “place themselves in the colonizer’s service to protect his interests exclusively (and, critically) end up by adopting his ideology and values”. 

Colonialism, according to Memmi, therefore results in “a disease of the mind” affecting both colonized and colonizer, albeit in different ways. The cure for this condition “involves difficult and painful treatment, extraction and reshaping of present conditions of existence”; i.e. liberation, of both the colonized nation and the colonized mind.

Aime Cesaire likewise affirmed that “colonization is based on psychology” and noted in this context that there are certain groups of people who suffer from what is known as a “dependency complex”. Cesaire suggests such people “are psychologically made for dependence, that they need dependence, that they crave it, demand it” even. They exist in every colonial society reflecting the fact that “colonialism is always a co-operative venture” with native elites and other groups pensioned-off within the system.

A feature of ‘dependent psychology’ is that, “since no one can serve two masters, one of the two should be sacrificed to the other”; and here we see the assimilated group cast their native culture, identity and people aside in favour of the ‘superior’ culture and identity of the colonizer. In this regard history tells us there are no moral depths to which the colonizer and assimilated native accomplices and functionaries may be prepared to stoop, more especially “whenever colonial society is imperilled”; and here that the colonizer’s ‘human values’ become a rather theoretical concept.

Psychological impacts occur as a consequence of the colonized substituting his ideology, values, culture and language with that of the colonizer via a cultural assimilation process in which the colonizer’s education, institutions, literature and media serve as key enablers. This process, also referred to as ‘cultural imperialism’, marginalises the colonized group culture making it ‘clandestine’ and ‘moribund’, ‘removing the colonized from his history’, and rendering native language(s) ‘invalid’ and ‘rusted’.

The process of assimilation thus makes the colonized into “a manufactured being” which, based on a cultural illusion, results in “a false persona”. Historian Professor Sir Tom Devine refers to this as a ‘dual persona’, i.e. a feeling of being both ‘Scottish and British’, albeit this perspective fails to recognise that one of these ‘beings’ is necessarily rather more dominant than the other, and that any ‘Union’ is illusory. In a colonial environment, the colonized’s culture and language, values, and even identity are rendered subordinate, cast aside, and hence ‘sacrificed’.

Further psychological effects that debilitate the colonized ‘mind’ in this process include development of ‘internalized racism’ or ‘Appropriated Racial Oppression’, what we also know as the ‘Scottish Cultural Cringe’, which is a form of self-hatred. The assimilated native, through self-denial, seeks or indeed ‘craves’ to be more like the ‘superior’ colonizer culture and ‘being’ in all its (British) ‘exceptionalism’, including grasping a British/English identity, sacrificing their own in the process.

What we are dealing with, then, in a colonial society, is a people suffering from a serious and long-term psychological condition due to colonial domination and its associated oppressions. In this regard, Salvo’s Sara Salyers is right to say that “a deep psychological wound is inflicted on the people” which can only be remedied by the restoration of a Scottish identity, the reclaiming of national sovereignty, and recovery of national culture and values (common good etc.). Here, postcolonial theorists refer to the need to “decolonise the mind” as well as liberating the people and nation; the important point is that both must go hand in hand because decolonization (of the nation) without the other (i.e. decolonising the ‘mind’) would fail to provide for true, authentic or complete liberation from oppression.

Psychodynamics

A somewhat curious aspect in the matter of Scottish independence, and amidst the reality of a constantly failing British state, is that approximately half the voting population still feel inclined to oppose national liberation; this might be considered abnormal for ‘a people’ seeking independence/decolonisation. It may therefore be hypothesized that this must in part be due to the ‘colonial condition’ a people are subject to and its related psychological effects.

The psychoanalytic approach developed by Sigmund Freud is based on the idea that past events and unconscious motives stimulate and influence our current behaviours. This relates to personality theory in which Freud’s three main established elements are: 

• the id, which is primitive and instinctive;
• the ego, as mediator between the id and the external world, and;
• the superego, comprising elements of internalised civil behaviour, our values and morals.

The combination of all three levels of consciousness is viewed as representing the totality of an individual’s lived experience from childhood until the present. Freud considered there is constant conflict between the id and the superego, which results in our anxiety. In order to counter this the individual develops what are regarded as ‘defence mechanisms’. These are psychological strategies we use to protect ourselves from experiencing unacceptable feelings which are at odds with whatever ‘ideology’ and ‘values’ we may hold as being the ‘right’ civil behaviour. These strategies are also referred to by Jung as ‘unconscious protective methods’. 

Our values (ideological, cultural etc.) are therefore critical influences in relation to our subsequent actions. It is important to note in the colonial context that “only the values of the colonizer are sovereign” (Memmi); here the more assimilated colonized adopts both the (racist superiority) ideology and ‘superior’ values and beliefs of the colonizer, which sets them ‘above’ and apart from the colonized culture and hence from other less assimilated native groups within the colonial social structure.

Defence mechanisms

It may be argued that it is these defence mechanisms which serve to prevent some Scots, and especially the more culturally assimilated, from supporting independence. Here, several of these protective defence mechanisms are considered and examples offered on how this may relate to the (largely unconscious) motivation of some Scots to oppose liberation (i.e. independence).

Denial: This occurs where the individual blocks unwanted thoughts and feelings from the conscious mind as a way to avoid pain and anxiety.  For example, this could include denial of Scottish Clearances, evictions and mass resettlement programmes Scots have been subjected to; the ongoing plunder of Scotland’s resources; brutal past wars of independence, or; Scotland’s enforced EU exit and denial of an electorally mandated second referendum.

Distortion: This is when an individual believes something to be true when it is not. For example, an individual may believe that the Scots language is not taught because it is considered (by British educationalists) to be ‘inferior’ to the English language and thus ‘invalid’ (as are aw thay fowk wha speak Scots); that Scotland is economically dependent on subsidies from England; that Westminster is sovereign over and above Scottish sovereignty(?); that Scots entered into the Union voluntarily; that Scotland’s plentiful resources are not plundered, and; that Scots are somehow (insert any reason) unable to govern themselves.

Repression: This is where an individual blocks unwanted thoughts, feelings and emotions from their conscious thinking. Repression is an unconscious process. This might include thoughts that inequality and deprivation of one’s own ethnic group is deserved; that national social and economic under-development and high levels of poverty in Scotland are due to the inadequacies of the native group; that native group members should seek conformity with the ‘superior’ oppressor group culture, beliefs and language, and; that they should discard their own ‘inferior’ culture and language (and their national identity). 

Suppression: A conscious process which involves deliberately avoiding certain thoughts or memories and actively trying to forget them. Again, this may relate to removing from one’s mind historical mistreatments and wars waged against Scots; that the Union did not come about by bribery and threats; the intentional devaluation of one’s own group culture/language; developing patterns of thinking that support the (oppressive) status quo; that the cultural illusion and constitutional trickery of a dysfunctional and failing ‘one-nation’ Britain has positive features and values (however inadequately defined); or, that a majority of Scots did not vote for another independence referendum, or to remain in the EU (aye thay did).

Projection: Where an individual accuses someone else of having thoughts or feelings that they are experiencing. The more assimilated native will rebuke other natives for continuing to speak in their ‘inferior’ mother tongue; participates in development or appropriation of negative stereotype of one’s own ethnic group (Scottish cultural cringe), and; accuses those critical of their oppressor (i.e. the colonizer) and those seeking independence (which is liberation from oppression) of ‘anti-English’ racism when in fact colonialism (of the Scots) is based on racism and also results in internalized racism.

Dissociation: Here the individual blocks out trauma to protect the conscious mind from suffering too much stress. This might include rejecting a reality whereby the British state has routinely deployed Scots armies to fight some 150 or more imperial conflicts since the Union mainly to progress British/English imperialism ideology/values; refusal to accept the institutionalised lack of social, economic or educational opportunities for most Scots; or the resulting high levels of poverty and deprivation; excessive and incentivised out-migration of Scots amidst constant in-migration mainly of a managerial and professional class from the ‘core nation’; the ‘cultural recreation’ and industrial misappropriation of Scottish territory and resources; and, a belief that Scots are not still subject to an Anglophone cultural hegemony that, according to Professor Michael Hechter, sustains an exploitative “cultural division of labour within the UK internal colonialism model”.

Summary

Colonial oppression results in ‘a people’ (i.e. the colonized group) developing a serious psychological condition and a colonial mindset which reflects the colonizers (racist) ideology and values, which is also about widening inequalities between ethnic groups. These factors, and the resulting conflict between the id and superego, determine emotions and feelings of the colonized group, which is a key influence in the way people view themselves and others, and in how they behave in a colonial society. Cultural assimilation, being a fundamental element of colonialism, means native culture and language is made subordinate and marginalised, and is therefore in the process of perishing; hence the colonized nation and identity is also perishing so long as colonialism continues.

The ‘colonized mind’ automatically and pathologically rejects any notion of oppression or disadvantage through adopting several ‘defence mechanisms’. Once the ideology and values of the oppressor permeates and dominates the colonized mind (i.e. superego), the colonized will apply these protective defence mechanisms in order to deny, distort, divert and defuse any notion of oppression or exploitation; moreover, they will take every opportunity to promote and protect the privileges and ‘exceptionalism’ of the colonizer group in all respects, and to denigrate and de-base the colonized. The ‘colonial hoax’ is therefore continued and played out via this psychodynamic process in which even “the most absurd prejudices are explained and justified; and, as if by magic, the moon is turned into green cheese” (Cesaire).

Dealing effectively with the colonial ‘condition’ requires difficult treatment; liberation is the only remedy and takes effect through decolonization (i.e. independence). In order to ensure the colonized’s complete cure “his alienation must completely cease” (Memmi), for which the total disappearance of colonization, including the ending of cultural assimilation procedures (i.e. colonial education, media, institutional etc.) is necessary. If, on the other hand, colonialism is permitted to continue, the associated psychological effects can only worsen, as will the economic and political impacts; in addition, “the risk of conflict will increase” (Memmi).

MY COMMENTS

I think what Alf wrote about this article is very important. He wrote “I consider this one of the most important papers I have done on the subject of independence, not least because it explains why many Scots vote No, and that this reflects a psychological condition which is a consequence of colonialism.”

I think many of us who are in favour of Independence will recognise in this article some of the challenges we had to overcome to reach that position so we should show some tolerance for those who have not quite reached that transformational moment yet.

We should be optimistic because we know that when people open their eyes and ears to the Liberation message these obstacles collapse quickly. The only route to that is by building an education programme which is why our National Liberation Movement must concentrate on that both internationally and at home here in Scotland.

This paper is part of that process.

I am, as always

YOURS FOR SCOTLAND.

BEAT THE CENSORS

Unfortunately there are some sites where extensive blocking takes place against bloggers who do not slavishly follow the dictates of one political party. This is a direct threat to freedom of speech and I unhesitatingly condemn such action. To overcome this problem I rely on my readers to share Yours for Scotland articles as widely as possible. My thanks to those who help overcome censorship.

FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS

The most reliable way to get articles from this site is by taking out a free subscription which are available on the Home and Blog pages of the Yours for Scotland website. Given that I often seem to face other problems with both Twitter and Facebook this guarantees that my content is freely available.

SALVO

Salvo continues to do valuable work and an ever increasing number of people are involved. They are now running strong campaigns on several key issues and as the campaigning arm of Liberation.Scot they are the key to success. If you would like to make a donation to further Salvo and Liberation’s campaigning here are the details. All donations large or small greatly helps our work.

Bank RBS

ACCOUNT SALVOSCOT Ltd.

Ac number 00779437

Sort Code 83-22-26

LIBERATION.SCOT

If you have not already joined please visit the above website and join now. We are looking to achieve a membership larger than any other political organisation in Scotland to approach the UN to achieve the official status as Scotland’s Liberation Movement intent of removing the colonising forces from our nation. Be part of it.