The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, The SDGs and Mental Health:

Chapter 1 of Paulo Freire's The Pedagogy of the Oppressed offers a detailed analogy of the oppressed and difficulties navigating oppressors in the quest for liberation. Although Freire's writing is often complex to comprehend, broadly speaking, this chapter examines the position of the oppressed in comparison to the oppressors, showcasing how, often, their relationship is quite ambiguous. This is because, in Freire's view, the oppressed internalise the consciousness of their oppressor, emulating their way of life. His argument is summed up well in this quote:  

'One of the gravest obstacles to the achievement of liberation is that oppressive reality absorbs those within it and thereby acts to submerge human beings consciousness.'

Building upon this analysis, Freire proceeds to examine the many ways in which the oppressed can achieve liberation. For example, he underpins the importance of action. For the oppressed to participate in the fight for liberation, they have to understand their position in regards to their oppressor. They have to reflect upon their position as the oppressed and be willing to act upon it. He emphasises both leadership and dialogue (especially between oppressed and oppressor) as key towards this reflective realisation. As he puts it: 

'At all stages of their liberation, the oppressed must see themselves as women and men engaged in the ontological and historical vocation of becoming more fully human.'

Freire characterises the oppressor as controllers who perpetuate dehumanisation. He talks about their lack of empathy and the dismissal towards the prejudices inflicted upon the oppressed. He even likens the position of the oppressor with sadism and an the innate desire for humans to control other humans.  He talks about how contradictory a pedagogy of the oppressed would become if shaped by the oppressor. He suggests the 'egotistical' 'false generosity' of the oppressor would only continue to turn the oppressed into 'interments of dehumanisation'. Instead, it is up to the oppressed to 'implement a liberating education'. 

Overall, this chapter was very insightful and academically stimulating. The ending stressed the importance of commitment and collaboration of the oppressed towards achieving liberation. Two quotes I found particularly thought provoking were: 

'Only the leaders own involvement in reality, within an historical situation, led them to criticise this situation and to wish to change it.'

And...

'...the presence of the oppressed in the struggle for their liberation will be what it should be: not pseudo-participation, but committed involvement' 

Here, it feels as if Freire seeks to inspire the oppressed to recognise their situation and be the change-makers themselves. These quotes got me thinking about activist issues close to me, and the role I play within them. In particular, the SDG I have been looking at for this weeks presentation, Goal 3, 'Good-health and 'Well-being'. 

I've been reflecting a lot upon this SDG and our global mental health crisis. It doesn't sit right with me that the UN haven't differentiated between physical health (health care systems) and mental health (global mental health crisis). As I mentioned in my week one blog, I feel strongly that it is further contributing towards the global stigma that suggests mental health is only an extension of our 'good' 'physical health'. In light of Freire's work, I feel now's the time for me to try and change this attitude to mental health and its devastating global impacts. As someone who suffers from this harmful stigma, I feel like this module is a good opportunity to seek change. 

When designing my slide for this week I felt it was important to start by explaining mental health in relation to its global impact. I think often we can become wrapped up in national experience, so I was struck hard when looking at The Global Burden of Disease Study of 2019. Mental illness remained within the top ten causes of disease burden. This highlighted to me, even more so, that mental health illnesses are diseases, and should be treated as such. 

For my second point, I just wanted to explain my critique of the UN's SDG number 3. It is so important that mental health is talked about, not just in a national, but global context. I think the UN have certainly missed out on contributing to the destigmatisation of mental health illness, by putting 'good well-being' in the same category as 'good health'. The main point that mental health activists of recent have been pushing is talk! The more it is spoken about, and the more the globe is encouraged to have open conversations about mental health, the more opportunities for help, education and, ultimately, recognition. 

Finally, I decided to have a think about how this SDG links towards the concepts from last week, Culture Jamming and Beautiful Trouble. I found that Beautiful Trouble would probably be a better fit for activism for mental health. However, I did suggest that Culture Jamming, because it involves challenging the 'status quo', could possibly be a good outlet for debunking mental health stigma. I feel that culture jamming is more associated with challenging the manipulative, capitalist ways of the media. But I do think perhaps there could be some creative ways in which mental health activism could use this concept.

However, I definitely feel acts of Beautiful Trouble relates more to the recent mental health activist work I have been seeing. For example, the concept of activism advocates for combining the political with art. The reading from last week stressed the importance of this concept as a way of making the invisible, visible. I think this idea relates a lot to mental health, specifically because it refers to a way of making art which speaks to unspoken, internalised issues. Within my slide I provided 4 examples of modern artworks expressing specific mental illnesses. I feel strongly that art is an amazing outlet for opening up conversations about what's going on in the mind, as dark and as complex as it may be. I also like how Beautiful Trouble, as an oxymoron, embodies the nature of these artworks; they are beautiful but at the same time dark and emotional insights into the troubled mind. 

By Ellie Ingham