Ignacio Martín-Baró

Hi Friends! Today I’m going to tell you about a person who has done a very important job in psychology, his name is Ignacio Martín-Baró.

Ignacio Martín-Baró was a psychologist and a Spanish Jesuit priest who devoted his life to researching the difficult social and political reality of a small Latin American country, El Salvador, where he taught at the Central American University "José Simeón Cañas" (UCA), of which he was responsible for the Department of Psychology and Education and Vice-rector, founded a prestigious institute of public opinion, the IUDOP.

Besides, He fought for Human Rights, equality and social justice in El Salvador. He criticized the negative impact of US policy for his country. He was very influential in a wide range of academics and activists in the United States. He was a follower of the Theology of Liberation, father of the Social Psychology of Liberation and main reference of Latin American Social Psychology, especially in community psychology and political psychology.

One of the most important things that Ignacio has done was that in the middle of the war, he proposed that a solidary academic network be created that transcends borders, to contribute to the discussion of theories and methods for the formation and training of professionals capable of responding to the needs of the victims.

I really like his way of practicing psychology because it makes it wider, makes it less scientific and places psychology in a specific context so that it responds to the particular needs of each people. I like the idea that oppressed by various problems can be helped by people who can empathize with them and relate their social conditions to the place where they live, I don’t like the idea of ​​practicing a general psychology without a specific context.

"Performing a psychology of liberation requires first achieving a liberation from psychology" - Ignacio Martín Baró.