The Falsification of African Consciousness Dr. Amos Wilson

Know Thyself Study Group www.kemetrise.org

Who Was This Man?

 IMO, Dr. Amos Wilson was the greatest psychologist of all time

 Born in 1941, Hattiesburg, Mississippi Died in 1995, New York City

 Educated at Morehouse College and Fordham University (Ph.D. in Psychology)

 Social Worker, Probation Officer, Trainer, Counselor, and Professor at CUNY

 Applied Fields: Developmental Psychology, Child Psychology

What Were His Goals?

 To contribute to our knowledge of self by studying two aspects of our psychology: (1) our levels of consciousness and (2) the connection between our psychological development and our progress as a people

 To provide information on our psychological history

 To analyze the ways in which we can re-structure our psychology in order to change our political, social, and economic circumstances

Our Consciousness An Introduction

What Is Consciousness?

 Consciousness is a type of power

 We use consciousness to solve problems through our will

 Our level of consciousness determines our behaviors

 Consciousness is affected by social interactions

 African consciousness has been tremendously affected by our relationship with white people

 Contains 3 elements

Three Elements of Consciousness:

1.  Contents 2.  Instrumentalities 3.  Directional Organization

Contents: Beliefs, Opinions, Knowledge, Perceived Knowledge, Self-Perceptions, Worldview, Conditioned Responses

Instrumentalities: The way we use the contents of our mind

Directional Organization: How we show our consciousness through the goals we pursue, the values we hold, and the reasons behind our thoughts

How Has White Supremacy Falsified Our Consciousness?:

1.  By giving us false contents: a false history, false knowledge, false fantasies

2.  By impairing our ability to think: We have become confused about what knowledge is, who it belongs to, and how it should be used

3.  By Falsifying our Values: Causing us to value the wrong things, desire the wrong things, pursue the wrong things—things that are contrary to our well-being and our interests as a people

The Falsification of Afrikan Consciousness The Book

What Is The Purpose of The Book?

1.  The book was written to satisfy many requests to make the information in his lectures available in print format

2.  The book draws on 2 lectures: (1) European Historiography and Oppression Exposed and (2) European Political Dogmatism

2.  In both of these lectures, Dr. Wilson talks about how history has shaped our psychological make-up, has caused us to be in a perpetual state of amnesia about who we are and what we should be doing

How Is the Book Organized?

The book is organized into 3 parts:

Part 1: European Historiography and Oppression Exposed

This part of the book discusses the relationship between history and psychology. Specifically, he focuses on the aspect of oppression that has lead to cultural amnesia, a loss of power, and economic inequality

How Is the Book Organized?

The book is organized into 3 parts:

Part 2: Eurocentric Political Dogmatism

This part of the book discusses how our mental health has been affected by our political circumstances. He ties in important concepts such as individualism, sanity versus insanity, repression, and self-transformation

How Is the Book Organized?

The book is organized into 3 parts:

Part 3: The Political Psychology of Black Consciousness

This part of the book discusses how we have been taught to “normalize” ideas that are not ours but also how white psychology ideas have mis-labeled us as deviant and abnormal. This is all part of the plan to falsify our consciousness

What Should We Get From This Book?

For the most part, this will depend on what you’re bringing to it. But, we should at least be able to understand these things:

  How the system of white supremacy has affected and continues to affect our minds

  The process that was used to create a psychological nightmare for African people. We should see some parallels to Na’im Akbar’s concept of “alien identity”.

  What factors we must consider as we re-structure our minds, our thinking, and our values so that we can improve our condition.

A Final Note:

This is not necessarily a book geared toward solutions. For that, you’ll have to take a look at some of his other works (mainly Blueprint For Black Power). Instead, this book offers an explanation and analysis of psychological condition so that we can better understand where we are at this point.