AUTHOR’S NOTE: This paper discusses looking to Native American psychology to critique Western forms of psychology. It should be stated that the author is not themselves Native American, and that they are not trying to claim as such through this paper.
Mental healthcare and support have been a part of my life since before I’d turned six years old. I found myself moving from therapist to therapist as I grew up, unable to understand why I was treated so differently by my peers and the adults around me. I’d get asked to talk about my thoughts and what I saw, only to be put on a new medication or sent to a new therapist who could properly treat my mental illness. Bullying came as a side effect of going to therapy, and being different than my peers meant being unable to fit in and thus led to more bullying.
I can’t even begin to describe how I felt as a six year old child being told I had something wrong with me and that I needed to see someone to essentially fix me and make me normal like my peers. I experienced the world differently than others, and that was cause enough to be placed under the care of therapists and psychiatrists who tried medication after medication to fix what was wrong with me. The idea that “good mental health” was the end goal and that meant either curing me of my divergent thinking and experiences of teaching me how to hide them from…
