Essays on Breaking The Chains

‘The Psychological Legacy of Slavery’ is the title of Chapter 1. The chapter discusses a type of slavery that is invisible but very powerful. The author Dr. Na’im Akbar explains that slavery lasted three centuries and still affects contemporary African Americans. I agree that for the psychology of people something as traumatic as slavery must leave psychological scars on the group of people who were slaves, even several generations after the legal end of slavery. After the Civil War nothing was done to help the former slaves adjust to their new lives as free men and women. Nothing ...

Introduction

Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery is a compilation of three essays by psychologist Dr. Na’im Akbar, earlier it was called ‘Chains and Images of Psychological Slavery’. Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery includes specific sections that address to the process to eliminating mental slavery or the ghosts of plantation. Through these essays Dr. Akbar has attempted to develop two ideas; firstly, the psychological impact of slavery. Secondly, the influence that Caucasian images for worship has on the African-American psychology. Dr. Akbar presented a behavioural determinant that according to him doesn’t have great legitimacy in the Western psychology. Many ...

“The ultimate power is our mental power, our consciousness, our awareness.” (Na’im 2008) The preceding quote is from the book Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery written by Dr. Na’im Akbar a professor and psychologist. He is referring to the three pathways he believes African Americans can use to strengthen their power in America. The reason African Americans need to reach their ‘ultimate power’ is to fight the psychological wounds that slavery has left on black-skinned Americans whose ancestors were kidnapped from Africa and forced into slavery on American Southern plantations. The main challenge of reaching a goal of ‘ ...