Ignacio Martín-Baró (Valladolid, 1942 — San Salvador, 1989) was a Spanish-Salvadoran social psychologist and Jesuit priest, vice-rector of the Central American University (UCA) in El Salvador. He was murdered by the Atlacatl battalion of the Salvadoran army on the morning of November 16, 1989, along with five other Jesuits, their housekeeper, and her daughter. He is a foundational figure of Latin American Psychology of Liberation.
Central Thesis: Martín-Baró postulated that Latin American psychology—uncritically imported from Europe and North America—systematically ignored the social, political, and economic reality of Latin American peoples: structural poverty, military dictatorships, political violence, colonial heritage, ethnic oppression. A responsible psychology had to start from this concrete reality, not from metropolitan abstraction.
Key Concepts:
Psychosocial trauma: trauma experienced by populations under dictatorships or armed conflicts is not 'expanded individual trauma' but a qualitatively distinct phenomenon requiring specific psychosocial approaches, not just individual clinical ones.
De-ideologization: the first task of the Latin American psychologist is to help the oppressed recognize the real causes of their suffering (structural, historical, political) instead of being trapped by the internalized explanations of the dominant ideology ('something is wrong with me').
Historical memory: the processing of collective trauma requires preserving and processing the memory of events—trials of repressors, monuments, records, education—.
His seminal book: Psicología de la liberación (published posthumously in 1998, Trotta) compiles his key texts.
Importance for the field: For Latin American therapists working with survivors and descendants of dictatorships (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala), Martín-Baró's work offers an indispensable theoretical-political framework. It complements the transgenerational systemic approach with the collective historical-political dimension.
Bibliography
- Psychology of Liberation — Ignacio Martín-Baró. Trotta, 1998.
- Power and Disappearance — Concentration Camps in Argentina — Pilar Calveiro. Colihue, 1998.
These books are in the reference library that nourishes Constelando el Origen.
Related Terms
Collective historical memory
Social, legal, and symbolic processing of massive collective traumatic events —dictatorships, wars, genocides—. Its elaboration or absence affects several generations of descendants.
See entryChildren of the disappeared (LATAM dictatorships)
Direct descendants of victims disappeared during Latin American dictatorships (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, etc.). They carry specific political-familial trauma documented by decades of research.
See entryVamik Volkan
Cypriot-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (1932-). Pioneer in the study of political transgenerational trauma and major ethnic collective traumas.
See entryTransgenerational trauma
Pain or trauma not processed by one generation that is transmitted—psychically, somatically, and, according to recent evidence, epigenetically—to subsequent generations.
View entryA session that names what hurts
If you recognize this dynamic in your own history, a Family Constellation can reveal where it comes from and what movement brings order to it. Daniela accompanies each case with respect.
Sessions in Spanish only