How Colonial Ideas Shape Mental Health in Times of Systemic Destabilization

What is it about?

We are living through what is often described as many crises at once, including climate breakdown, social inequality, political instability, and rising mental health distress. This article argues that these are not separate problems, nor signs that an otherwise functional system has broken. Rather, they are interconnected expressions of a single systemic condition: the cumulative and entangled consequences of multiple tipping points. At the root of this condition is a way of thinking and organizing life that separates humans from each other and from the rest of the living world, obscuring interdependence and responsibility. Drawing on Indigenous knowledge and long-term collaborations with Indigenous communities in Brazil and Peru, the authors describe how this separation has been built into modern societies through colonialism. They use the term neurocolonization to describe how colonial systems shape not only institutions, but also how people think, feel, relate, and understand themselves and the world. Over time, this conditioning affects nervous systems, relationships, and ideas of what it means to be “healthy” or “normal.” The article compares two different ways of understanding mental health. One approach, common in Western psychology, focuses on individuals as separate from society and the Earth, and aims to help people adapt to existing systems. The other approach, common in many Indigenous traditions, understands humans as inseparable from land, ancestors, future generations, and other beings, and sees healing as a collective and relational process. The authors suggest that neuro-decolonization involves unlearning harmful patterns rooted in separation, while also reclaiming and revitalizing relational ways of caring for mental health. They invite the field of psychology to reflect on its role in reinforcing colonial harms, and to support forms of healing that are grounded in interdependence, responsibility, and care for all life.

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Photo by Lance Grandahl on Unsplash

Photo by Lance Grandahl on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This work is timely because experiences of mental distress are intensifying alongside ecological and social breakdowns. These developments are often treated as separate or individual problems. This article challenges that framing by showing how mental distress is entangled with wider systems that shape how life is organized, valued, and governed, and how these systems generate harm across people, communities, and the rest of the living world. What is distinctive about this article is that it does more than critique colonial assumptions in psychology. It offers a framework for understanding how these assumptions become embodied, shaping nervous systems, relationships, and patterns of perception and regulation. Through the concept of neurocolonization, the article makes visible how colonial logics are reproduced not only through institutions and policies, but also through everyday ways of thinking, feeling, and relating that are often taken for granted. The article also offers ethical orientation for the field of psychology. Rather than proposing technical solutions, quick reforms, or the instrumental inclusion of Indigenous practices, it emphasizes the need for humility, accountability, and sustained relational repair. This perspective invites psychologists, educators, and policymakers to reconsider what mental health means in a world shaped by cumulative systemic harm, and to support responses that are more responsible, context-sensitive, and life-affirming.

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