Problematising therapeutic culture with the theory of “whiteness”
When Bayo Akómoláfé speaks of “Whiteness,” he is rarely speaking about a phenotype or a group of people with pale skin. He is speaking about a geological force, a way of worlding, an epistemological posture.
He describes Whiteness as a desire for mastery, enclosure, categorical purity, linearity, and the total legibility of the world. It is the impulse to flatten the earth into a grid so it can be managed.
When we apply this lens to modern therapeutic culture, we see that much of what we call “mental healthcare” is actually Whiteness at work in the emotional realm. It often seeks to capture the wild, distressed soul and rehabilitate it back into a productive citizen of the Empire.
Here is how Bayo Akómoláfé’s theories problematise therapeutic culture:
𝟭) 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗽𝘆 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 “𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲”
The Theory: Akómoláfé speaks of the “fugitive”—that which escapes the plantation, that which refuses to be captured, named, or put to work. Whiteness is terrified of the fugitive; it wants to capture it and bring it back to the enclosure. The Problem in Therapy: Therapeutic culture often acts as a containment strategy. When a person falls apart (becomes fugitive), the system rushes in not to explore the falling, but to “stabilise” them. We diagnose (name/capture), we treat (manage), and we aim for “functioning” (return to the plantation).
The Question: Is this therapy session a sanctuary for your wildness, or is it a place where we trim your claws so you can go back to your desk?
𝟮) 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 “𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆”
The Theory: Akómoláfé argues that safety is often a euphemism for control. In a world of entanglement, absolute safety is impossible. The demand for safety often requires the exclusion of the “other,” the chaotic, and the unknown. He suggests that “safety is not the absence of the monster, but the capacity to stay in the room with it.” The Problem in Therapy: Therapy is obsessed with “safe spaces.” While necessary for trauma recovery, this can morph into a demand for sterility. We try to create spaces void of conflict, void of risk, and void of the political storms outside. This creates a bubble that disconnects the client from the reality of the world.
The Question: Are we creating safety, or are we creating a padded cell where reality is not allowed to enter?
𝟯) 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 “𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗳”
The Theory: Akómoláfé insists that “we are not nouns, we are verbs.” We are entangled. The idea of the discrete, separate individual is a colonial invention designed to make us assignable units of labor. The Problem in Therapy: Standard therapy is hyper-individualistic. It locates the problem inside the person (your anxiety, your depression, your chemical imbalance). It privatises suffering. It treats the fish while ignoring that the water is toxic. It suggests that if you just do enough CBT or breathwork, you can be well in a sick world.
The Question: Why are we trying to heal a “self” that doesn't exist apart from the land, the ancestors, and the systems of power around it?
𝟰) 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗼 “𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲”
The Theory: Akómoláfé says, “The times are urgent, let us slow down.” Whiteness is obsessed with progress, forward motion, and solutions. It cannot abide the aporia—the impasse, the place where there is no way forward. The Problem in Therapy: Therapeutic culture is solution-oriented. We want “outcomes.” We want to “process” trauma so it goes away. We want to “get over” grief. This is a linear, colonial march. It refuses the wisdom of the cycle, the descent, the composting. It refuses to let the wound speak its own intelligence.
The Question: What if the depression is not a malfunction to be fixed, but a necessary refusal to participate in a violent system? What if we need to stay in the trouble longer?
𝟱) 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 (𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘀)
The Theory: The Empire demands that everything be named, measured, and categorized. If it cannot be named, it is dangerous. The Problem in Therapy: The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) is a book of colonial categorization.It takes the vast, mysterious, spiritual, ancestral, and political pain of a human being and shrinks it into a code like “Generalized Anxiety Disorder.” This makes the pain “legible” to insurance companies and institutions, but it often strips the pain of its dignity and its message.
The Question: What happens to the parts of our suffering that do not fit into a diagnostic code? Do they get erased?
𝟲) 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝘂𝗺𝗮 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻
The Theory: Akómoláfé challenges the idea that we “have” trauma like we have a cold. He suggests we are in trauma, that trauma is a landscape, a terrain, a relational field. The Problem in Therapy: We often treat trauma as a foreign object to be excised from the body so the person can be “clean” again. This assumes that the “normal” state of a human is a vacuum-sealed, un-impacted purity.
The Question: Instead of trying to “clear” the trauma, what if we asked how to navigate the terrain we are already in?