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Lilian Comas-Diaz: Researcher for Multicultural Care

During National Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15-October 15, 2022, we celebrate Latinx leaders who have had a lasting impact on the world of phycology.

The final person we want to highlight this year is Lilian Comas-Diaz, PhD. American psychologist and researcher of multiethnic and multicultural communities, she was the 2019 winner of American Psychological Association (APA) Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Practice of Psychology.

Though born in Chicago, Comas-Diaz would move at six years old to where her parents were originally from in Puerto Rico, living there until her twenties. She felt driven her whole life to be psychologist and after earning her BA and MA from the University of Puerto Rico, she went on to earn her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1979.

After graduating, working at the APA in the Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs, she quickly recognized that the field of psychology was not adequately addressing the needs of underserved populations and decided to become an advocate for those communities.

Becoming the APA director of the Ethnicity, Race, and Cultural Affairs Portfolio in 1984, she played a vital role in the founding of Div. 45 of the APA (Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race). She later became Div. 45’s first treasurer and was the first editor-in-chief of its journal, Cultural Diversity and Mental Health.

Outside of writing for the journal, Comas-Díaz has published works related to racial trauma and how to address it from ethnocultural and multicultural standpoints. Her publications include Ethnocultural Psychotherapy (1996), Multicultural Care: A Clinician’s Guide to Cultural Competence (2012), and Multicultural Care in Practice (2013).

In an interview recorded at the 2011 APA Convention in Washington, DC, Lillian Comas-Díaz talks about her book, Multicultural Care: A Clinician’s Guide to Cultural Competence. “Culture is like the air we breathe — it really shapes everything; it permeates all life. Culture shapes the way we get sick, the way we interpret our distress, the way we think we’re going to heal, the way we see our healers. So, it really — if we don’t recognize the elephant in the middle of the consulting room, we would be missing almost 90% of what goes on with clients.”

Further talking about culturally confident clinicians, Diaz-Comas states: “Clinicians need to engage in cultural self-assessment — know thyself. Then they have to commit to an ongoing process of examining the realities of how culturally imbedded we are, we all are, patients and also clinicians. And then an awareness that we don’t know at all, a willingness to not only work with culturally diverse individuals but also to learn from our clients. And last but not least, clinicians, we need to be flexible in our approach when we work with culturally diverse clients.”

“I believe [the importance of being culturally competent with all patients and problems, regardless of cultural or racial backgrounds] is because we are all culturally diverse, every interaction including clinical interactions are cross-cultural in nature. So, if we are culturally competent or we aim to be culturally competent, that’s a way of being a better clinician. In fact, many scholars say that cultural competence is super-ordinate to clinical confidence because it embraces everything. So yes, I do believe that cultural competence is needed with all clients and with all problems.”

As more providers are working towards delivering more culturally competent care, psychologists of color like Comas-Diaz have played essential roles in the difficult transition towards a more inclusive and less ethnocentric field of psychology.

References

• Featured Psychologist: Lillian Comas-Diaz, PhD (apa.org)
• Interview With Lillian Comas-Díaz About “Multicultural Care” (apa.org)
• Lillian Comas-Díaz – Wikipedia

First Latina Leader: Dr. Melba Vasquez

During National Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15-October 15, 2022, we celebrate Latinx leaders who have had a lasting impact on the world of phycology.

Today, we are highlighting the first Latina president of the American Psychological Association (APA), Melba J. T. Vasquez, Ph.D., ABPP.

Dr. Vasquez has authored numerous psychological texts, received awards acknowledging her prowess in the field, co-founded a multi-cultural conference and led to the creation of a new division of the APA, the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race.

In 2011, Vasquez, prompted by her colleagues, ran for, and was elected the first Latina President of the APA. Previously serving in leadership positions in the Association, she moved into a role previously occupied by only 12 women in the 100-year history of the organization. Her tenure as president focused on educational disparities for poor or ethnic minority students, immigration, preventing discrimination, and social justice.

Her leadership lead to a more inclusive Association and more diverse attendance at their annual convention.

“As APA President, my theme for the 2011 APA convention was social justice, and several of my presidential initiatives were relevant to that theme, and I received feedback that many participants came because of that,” said Vasquez when discussing her time as President. “One mid-career African American psychologist told me that he had attended once before ten years previously and had not connected with the conference, but he was enjoying this conference very much. He said, “this is not my grandfather’s conference!”

In the past, Dr. Vasquez saw a lack of support and inclusion for minorities in the field. “Psychology in general, APA in particular, have a terrible history of racism and other forms of biases,” said Vasquez. “Many in the leadership of the past promoted eugenics and other forms of oppressive, faulty research that was harmful for racial and ethnic minorities in society and among its members.”

In October 2021, the American Psychological Association acknowledged its role in promoting and perpetuating racism in the United States. In issuing its apology, the APA confirmed its commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.

“The American Psychological Association failed in its role leading the discipline of psychology, was complicit in contributing to systemic inequities, and hurt many through racism, racial discrimination, and denigration of people of color, thereby falling short on its mission to benefit society and improve lives. APA is profoundly sorry, accepts responsibility for, and owns the actions and inactions of APA itself, the discipline of psychology, and individual psychologists who stood as leaders for the organization and field.” American Psychological Association Council Policy Manual

“The process of arriving at the apology involved reviewing some of the historic racist events and products.” said Dr. Vasquez when commenting on the apology, “Improvements are slowly made, but much work has yet to occur at individual, group and institutional and organizational levels of psychology.”

In 1999, Dr. Vasquez co-founded The National Multicultural Conference and Summit. The conference provided an opportunity for psychological professionals to gather to inform and inspire multicultural theory, research, practice and advocacy. The conference has been held every two years since its inception. In 2024, NMCS will be held in Santa Fe, NM.

With changes from the APA and a visible increase in the presence of Latinx psychologists in academia, conducting research, teaching, and training, and providing services in communities around the United States, Vasquez sees positive change in her field.

For the Spanish-speaking population, linguistically competent care from organizations like the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute (PPI) has become a vital part of care.

“The development of structures to provide ongoing services for the Latinx community is very important,” said Vasquez. “We are a varied group; some speak English very well, some are acculturated, but even those more often than not prefer cultural and linguistic compatibility.”

Dr. Vasquez continues to build on her work, spending time promoting leadership development for graduate students, early-career and mid-career psychologists. She does this through informal mentoring and through structured groups like the Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology.

For more information on PPI’s services for the Spanish-speaking population, visit the Hispanic Psychiatric Programs page, or call (717) 782-2120.

“It ought to be the duty of the public officials to take pains to see that men help one another, that no one is oppressed, no one wronged by an unjust condemnation and that the strong come to the assistance of the weak in order that the body of citizens may grow in love day by day and endure forever.”
― Juan Luis Vives

During National Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15-October 15, 2022, we celebrate the achievements and contributions of Hispanic champions who have inspired others to succeed.

Today, we are highlighting the father of modern psychology and the grandfather of psychoanalysis, Juan Luis Vives.
Vives lived during a turbulent time in history. Born in 1493, one year after efforts of the Spanish Inquisition intensified due to royal decrees ordering Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism. His family would soon come under persecution for their religious beliefs, with his father, grandmother, grandfather and other extended family members executed. In 1509 Vives left Spain for Paris and started his formal academic education, where he was introduced to the Parisian humanist circle. By 1514, he had left Paris and settled in Bruges, where he would spend most of his life, split between the Netherlands and England.

His impact on the world would start to be felt in 1518, with the publishing of “Fabula de homine” (“A Fable about Man”). This piece offered a preview of his developing views on the nature and purpose of humankind. Vives would continue publishing through his death in 1540, with his last work, “De veritate fidei Christianae” (“On the Truth of the Christian Faith”) posthumously in 1543. In physiology, Vivess’ fame rests on the publication of “De anima et vita libri tres” (“Three Books on the Soul and on Life”) in 1538. Within this work, he would discuss the association of ideas, the nature of memory, animal psychology and induction as a method of psychological discovery. Through this publication and his other works, Vives developed his ideas on psychology, leading to the lasting implications in the field we still feel today.

“One of the most distinctive features of Vives’ study of the human soul is the fundamental role that psychological inquiry came to play in his reform program,” writes Lorenzo Casini in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. “His use of psychological principles in his writings often surpasses that of previous authors in scope and detail. He applies these principles, for instance, not only to individual conduct and education, but also to professional practice, social reform and practical affairs in general.”

As the first scholar to analyze the psyche directly, his work would go on to influence others, including:

• Philip Melanchthon, a German theologian, an influential educational system designer.
• Juan Huarte de San Juan, a Spanish physician and psychologist who established many early works on psychology.
• Robert Burton an English writer who is best known for his comprehensive book The Anatomy of Melancholoy.
• René Descartes a French philosopher, scientist and mathematician, who is widely accepted as a leader in the emergence of modern philosophy and science.

Juan Luis Vives is still honored today as a notable educator, scholar, philosopher and pioneer in psychology. As recently as 2013, Vives values inspired two Belgian Schools for higher education (KATHO and Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge-Oostende) to choose his name for their merger.

Sources:

• Britannica
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Wikipedia