PSYCHOLOGY IN THE PHILIPPINES, Indigenous Psychology and the Third World.-

Psychology in the Third World has a short or a long history depending upon how one looks at it. In fact, there are some who argue that there is no such thing as Third World psychologies, much less a history of indigenous psychologies. If one happens to disagree with the latter position, let him be comforted by the thought that acceptance and interest in indigenous psychologies is forthcoming anyway. After all it is now recognized that “natives” of far away countries have their own religion, art, medicine, and philosophy. Of course, labels are still used to distinguish them from western forms such as can be seen from reference to “pagan religions” ,”primitive art”, “folk medical practice,” or “implicit ethnic philosophy”. It is just another step to grant them a “psychology.”

After generously or even reluctantly conceding a “psychology to a Third World country, (it helps to put it quotation marks or qualify it with the word “indigenous” or even label it “nonscientific”) it becomes easier to discuss and see a history of psychology in the Philippines. Form the bulong of the early Filipinos, the psychotherapy practiced babaylans from the remote past of the present day: the beliefs, practices, and psychology of the natives which the early Christian missionaries aimed to changed and almost successfully destroyed in its written form; to the present issues of modernization which sometimes equated with westernization, Philippines and Filipino Psychology is very much alive.
It is admittedly unlikely that the manuscripts destroyed by Chirino and his companions are psychology dissertations. Some of said manuscripts may even be no more than love notes from one native to another. But who are we to pre-judge their importance one way or the other? Whatever they may be the sense of loss felt by Filipinos can only be shared by every psychologist interested in the history of psychology in the Third World countries especially if he is interested in indigenous psychology. Fortunately, in much the same sense that we can have a literature (written) and oral tradition (unwritten), we can also argue for a psychological tradition apart from a psychological literature in every country of the world.
The bases of an indigenous psychology in history and culture have been discussed in another article (Enriquez 1975). Suffice it say that in particular, the following were identified as bases for an indigenous national psychology: 1. Early or traditional psychology, 2. Man and Diwa (consciousness and meaning or the local conception and definition of the psyche as a focus of psychological interest), 3. Psychology of pagbabagong-isip(reawakening as an attitude and as a stage in the development of national consciousness), 4.psychology of behavior and human abilities (western psychology has much to contribute on this), 5. Social issues and problems and 6. Native languages, culture and orientation
(from the book of Behavioral Sciences pp.496 U.P-diliman Press)

In the particular case of the Philippines, the upholding and interactions among these bases occurred in the context of continuous
Struggle (or give and take, if one please) between the indigenous culture and the Western concerns and points-of-view in psychology.


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