Racism in a Context of Multiculturalism

This chapter focuses on the persistence of racism in a changing ethno-social scene in the UK, in the context of a developing multiculturalism. It discusses the interplay in the disciplines of psychiatry and psychology between diagnosis, discrimination and power; racism evident in so-called ‘ethnic issues’ in psychiatry; and the failure of psychology services to provide acceptable talking therapies for many ethnic minority people. The chapter considers the concept of the racialisation of various social groups, and how racism is embedded in aspects of psychiatric and psychological research, often without the people carrying out the research being fully aware of the fact. It also includes two sections on the excessive use of the schizophrenia diagnosis for black people. The discussions are illustrated by real-life stories and experiences of which the author has close knowledge or which involved him personally.