The psychology of colonialism

Psychology is a neglected discipline in Pakistan as not many people are aware of their psychological issues and tend to downplay their importance. Good psychological advice is hard to come by, with increasing religiosity impacting nearly every aspect of life.

In Urdu, writers such as Saleem Akhtar, Shehzad Ahmed, Rafiq Jafar and others have contributed immensely by writing articles and books that are accessible to general readers.

Akhtar Ali Syed is a psychologist who has been based in Ireland for decades, but he continues to write in Urdu for general readers. His new collection of articles and essays titled ‘Istemaar ki Nafsiyaat’ (Psychology of colonialism) offers insights into how colonialism has affected societies such as Pakistan in terms of people’s behaviour and their reactions to various stimuli. Though Syed is essentially a clinical psychologist, his writings span various sub-disciplines of psychology.

With prevailing extremism in society, Akhtar Ali Syed has tried to focus more on issues related to social psychology in Pakistan. In ‘Istemaar ki Nafsiyaat’ he has over a dozen articles exclusively dealing with extremism and the psychology of reaction that generates mental complexities in common people. But before discussing how he deals with extremism in his writings, a word about his general outlook is in order. He explains how religious narratives have shaped the psychological makeup of at least four generations in the past decades.

His take on the theory of the clash of civilizations is interesting and instructive. As we know, scholars such as Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington in the early 1990s propounded the idea that the future will not see any major clash of economic systems such as between capitalism and socialism, rather it will witness a resurgence of ‘civilizations’ that will clash against each other. Akhtar Ali Syed reminds us that Benazir Bhutto in the fifth chapter of her marvellous book ‘Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West’ beautifully summarizes the entire discussion on the clash of civilizations.

Syed also takes issue with ‘21 Lessons for the 21st Century’ by Yuval Noah Harari who rejects the concept of the clash of civilizations but defends a ‘global civilization’ that needs protection. Harari thinks that many Muslim fundamentalists received their inspiration from thinkers such as Karl Marx and Michel Foucault. Syed counters this assertion by Harari by saying that this is an overstatement that does not hold much ground as the concept of a ‘global civilization’ that faces threats from Islam or any other religion is deeply flawed. I concur with Syed rather than Harari.

In one of his articles, he questions the possibility of studying social dynamics in Pakistan without first having freedom of expression. Citing examples from the extremely partial analyses and reporting on countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, he makes it clear that even in Western countries free expression is still a pipedream. Some of the most widely circulated journals and newspapers never published writers such as Edward Said, Noam Chomsky, and Eqbal Ahmed. Even Robert Fisk could manage to get space in only a couple of top newspapers in the West.

Syed also takes issue with all those so-called scholars of religion who take it upon themselves to control the entire society by pontificating on every issue on earth. This, he thinks, is a major contributing factor to increasing extremism in society as people tend to see nearly every aspect of life through the lens of their own religiosity. He believes that no violent extremism is possible without a certain level of social sympathy that the state itself has been promoting for decades.

Making good use of writings by authors such as Lacan, Levinas, Laing, and Sartre, Akhtar Ali Syed exposes the term ‘the other’ that helps us understand the colonial tendency to think in binaries. Critics of colonialism have used ‘the other’ to distinguish between the colonizers and the colonized. The other appears to be ‘the intimate enemy’ to use the expression from Ashish Nandi, a renowned Indian political psychologist. The other knows us too well and perhaps knows more about us than we do. And that other becomes a yardstick for assessing our own strengths and weaknesses.

Extremism to a great extent revolves around this concept of the other who is different – better or worse – and still has relevance to us. Nearly everyone ends up comparing oneself with that ‘other’. How does the other look at me? How does 'the other' think about me? And so on. Syed thinks that most Muslim societies have developed a tendency to feel insecure in the face of ‘the other’, resulting in a consistent fear and a feeling of being threatened. Western countries have also contributed to enhancing this feeling by actually following up with the idea of the clash of civilizations.

So it appears that extremism is both self-imposed and something thrust upon Muslim societies by the ‘other’ who perhaps knows more about us and manages to manipulate this feeling of fear. In a way, the West – and their proxies in countries such as Pakistan – pretend to fight against extremism and on the other side act in a manner that intensifies the level of extremism the world over. Afghanistan, Iraq, and now the Middle East and near unconditional support to the Israelii regime are cases in point that show how the other is affecting Muslim societies.

Narcissism also plays a role here as the narcissistic personality disorder that Freud introduced helps us understand some of the intricacies of extremism too. Syed also takes help from Erich Fromm to explain the term moral hypochondriasis that he applies to entire societies as well as to individuals. While many people may become victims of their own narcissism, there is an even more dangerous form which is malignant narcissism. When an individual suffering from this type of narcissism manages to occupy a top decision-making position somewhere, it affects all of society.

Most dictators and even some democratically elected leaders display this malignant narcissism. In Pakistan, Altaf Hussain and Imran Khan are perhaps the best – or worst – examples of this malignant narcissism. Extremist leaders and militants also tend to have this malignancy that not only affects their own lives and families but damages entire communities and even nations.

‘Istemaar ki Nafsiyaat’ by Akhtar Ali Syed also has articles and essays on heroes and hero worship, and some interesting comments about the book by Reham Khan. The article about ‘post-truth’ is also worth reading. In short, the book is a good addition to the existing meagre material in Urdu on social psychology. We need more such writing to enlighten us.

The writer holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK. He tweets/posts @NaazirMahmood and can be reached at:

mnazir1964@yahoo.co.uk