Psy-expertise, therapeutic culture and the politics of the personal in development
Abstract
Expertise stemming from the psy disciplines is increasingly and explicitly shaping international development policy and practice. Whilst some policy makers see the use of psy expertise as a new way to reduce poverty, increase economic efficiency, and promote wellbeing, others raise concerns that psychocentric development promotes individual over structural change, pathologises poverty, and depoliticises development. This paper specifically analyses four aspects of psy knowledge used in contemporary development policy: child development/developmental psychology, behavioural economics, positive psychology, and global mental health. This analysis illuminates the co-constitutive intellectual and colonial histories of development and psy-expertise: a connection that complicates claims that development has been psychologized; the uses and coloniality of both within a neoliberal project; and the potential for psychopolitics to inform development.
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The growth of MHPSS is part of the global expansion of 'psy' knowledge.
“The growth of the MHPSS field, particularly in the Global South, is part of the global expansion of a body of lay and professionalized knowledge about the mind which authors have referred to as 'psy' (e.g., Vorhölter 2019) or 'psy-expertise' (Klein and Mills 2017).”
From Throwing therapy at the problem mental health and humanitarian intervention in Palabek refugee settlement, northern Uganda (2023) · cites this paper as Klein and Mills 2017
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Mills, C. (2018) · Development and Change · doi:10.1111/dech.12397 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Self-citationTorre, C. (2023) · London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) · doi:10.21953/lse.00004557
- Authors
- Klein, E., & Mills, C.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- University of Sheffield (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Mills, China
- Venue
- Third World Quarterly
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2017-05-12
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1990-2008
- ISSN
- 0143-6597 (ISSN-L)
- 1360-2241
- OpenAlex
- W2613891265
- Cited by
- 43
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2025: 4 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 16.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Third World Quarterly (publishedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
- City Research Online (City University London) (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Development › Development, Ethics, and Society
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Foucault, Power, and Ethics
- Keywords
- development policy, coloniality, neoliberalism, psychopolitics, child development, developmental psychology, behavioral economics, positive psychology, global mental health, depoliticization
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