Although Frantz Fanon identified as a psychiatrist and continued practicing until his death, his psychotherapy influences have received less attention than his political impact. The publication of Alienation and Freedom (2021) provides English scholars access to the breadth of his psychological scholarship. Fanon avoided identifying with any psychotherapy school because they inadequately considered the lived experience of the Black person (Hudis, 2015). However evident points of convergence between existential-humanistic (EH) psychotherapy and Fanon’s psychotherapy practice exist, including emphasis on humanism, disalienation, phenomenology, reducing stigma, and empowering patients. Fanon expanded these concepts and their application through a cultural lens. His multicultural and social justice perspectives in psychotherapy were decades ahead of the rest of the field. EH psychotherapy would benefit from deeper, consistent engagement with Fanon’s critique and advancement of psychological concepts and practices. Furthermore, Fanon engaged in advances beyond convergences with EH psychology that are valuable to consider, including immersion in other cultures to better understand patients and recognition of the need to understand the patient’s cultural context. Last, he modeled being a citizen psychologist; however, for Fanon this could include seeking to critique, upend, or dismantle psychological and social systems as part of this citizenship. Fanon recognized that treating the mental health needs of patients necessitated seeking transformation or replacement of systems contributing to their suffering and oppression including the related mental health needs.
AlexanderJ. C. (2004). Toward a theory of cultural trauma. In AlexanderJ. C.EyermanR.GiesenB.SmelserN. J.SztompokaP. (Eds.), Cultural trauma and collective identity (pp. 1–30). University of California Press.
BulhanH. A. (1985). Frantz Fanon and the psychology of oppression. Plenum Press.
4.
BurmanE. (2018). Fanon, education, action: Child as method. Routledge.
5.
ChionesoN. A.YusufM. A.ElmiS. M. (2020). Mending a crack in the sky: An evolving community healing case study among Somali Canadians. In TurnerL.NevilleH. A. (Eds.), Frantz Fanon’s psychotherapeutic approaches to clinical work: Practicing internationally with marginalized communities (pp. 229–253). Routledge.
6.
Cleare-HoffmanH. P.HoffmanL.PaigeJ. (2020). Cultural myths, rituals, and festivals. In HoffmanL.Cleare-HoffmanH. P.GrangerN.Jr.St. JohnD. (Eds.), Humanistic approaches to multiculturalism and diversity: Perspectives on existence and difference (pp. 117–127). Routledge.
7.
Du BoisW. E. B. (2003). The souls of black folks. Barnes & Noble. (Original work published in 1903)
8.
FanonF. (1967). Toward the African revolution (ChevalierH., Trans.). Grove Press. (Original work published in 1964)
9.
FanonF. (2004). The wretched of the earth (PhilcoxR., Trans.). Gross Press. (Original work published in 1963)
10.
FanonF. (2008). Black skin, white masks (PhilcoxR., Trans.). Grove Press. (Original work published in 1952)
11.
FanonF. (2018). Letter to the resident minister (CorcoranS., Trans.). In KhalfaJ.YoungR. J. C. (Eds.), Alienation and freedom (pp. 433–435). Bloomsburry Academic.
FanonF.AzoulayJ. (2018). Social therapy in a ward of Muslim men: Methodological difficulties (CorcoranS., Trans.). In KhalfaJ.YoungR. J. C. (Eds.), Frantz Fanon: Alienation and freedom. (pp. 353–372). Bloomsbury. (Original work published in 1954)
14.
FanonF.GeronimiC. (2018). TAT in Muslim women: Sociology of perception and imagination (CorcoranS., Trans.). In KhalfaJ.YoungR. J. C. (Eds.), Alienation and freedom (pp. 427–432). Bloomsburry Academic. (Original work published in 1956)
15.
FoxD.PrilleltenskyI.AustinS. (2009a). Critical psychology for social justice: Concerns and dilemmas. In FoxD.PrilleltenskyI.AustinS. (Eds.), Critical psychology: An introduction (2nd ed.; pp. 3–19). Sage.
16.
FoxD.PrilleltenskyI.AustinS. (Eds.). (2009b). Critical psychology: An introduction (2nd ed.). Sage.
17.
GaztambideD. J. (2024). Decolonizing psychoanalytic technique: Putting Freud on Fanon’s couch. Palgrave Macmillan.
18.
HoffmanL. (in press). Introduction to the APA handbook of humanistic and existential psychology. In HoffmanL. (Ed.), APA handbook of humanistic and existential psychology: Vol. 1. History, Research, Philosophy, & Theory. American Psychological Association.
19.
HoffmanL.Cleare-HoffmanH. P. (2025). An existential-humanistic approach to case formulation. American Psychological Association.
20.
HoffmanL.Cleare-HoffmanH. P.GrangerN.Jr.St. JohnD. (2020). Introduction. In HoffmanL.Cleare-HoffmanH. P.GrangerN.St. JohnD. (Eds.), Humanistic approaches to multiculturalism and diversity: Perspectives on existence and difference (pp. 1–14). Routledge.
21.
HoffmanL.IslamS. (in press). Relationality, isolation, and alienation. In HoffmanL. (Ed.), APA handbook of existential and humanistic psychology: Vol. 1. History, Research, Philosophy, & Theory. American Psychological Association.
22.
HoffmanL.VallejosL.Cleare-HoffmanH. P.RubinS. (2015). Emotion, relationship, and meaning as core existential practice: Evidence-based foundations. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 45, 11–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-014-9277-9.
23.
HookD. (2011). A critical psychology of the postcolonial: The mind of apartheid. Routledge.
24.
HookD. (2025). Fanon, psychoanalysis, and critical decolonial psychology: The mind of apartheid (2nd ed.). Routledge.
25.
HudisP. (2015). Frantz Fanon: Philosopher of the barricades. Pluto Press.
26.
JacksonT. R.PintauroM. E. (in press). Existential-humanistic psychology’s rightful place in the trauma discourse. In HoffmanL. (Ed.), APA handbook of humanistic and existential psychology: Vol. 2. Clinical and social applications. American Psychological Association.
27.
LaubscherL. (in press). Frantz Fanon: Toward a new humanism. In HoffmanL. (Ed.), APA handbook of humanistic and existential psychology: Vol. 1. History, Research, Philosophy, & Theory. American Psychological Association.
28.
LevittH. M.WheltonW. J. (2024). On the need to reconcile cultural and professional power in psychotherapy: Humanistic principles that are foundational for feminist multicultural practice. The Humanistic Psychologist, 52(2), 137–162. https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000327
29.
MaceyD. (2000). Frantz Fanon: A biography. Verso.
30.
MahendranD. (2022). The facticity of blackness: A non-conceptual approach to the study of race and racism in Fanon’s and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomology. In. LaubscherL.HookD.DesaiM. U. (Eds.), Fanon, phenomenology, and psychology (pp. 138–150). Routledge.
31.
MayR. (1981). Freedom and destiny. Norton & Company.
32.
NigelN. C. (2022). Decolonizing madness: The psychiatric writings of Frantz Fanon. In LaubscherL.HookD.DesaiM. U. (Eds.), Fanon, phenomenology, and psychology (pp. 23–47). Routledge.
33.
ParkerI. (2015). Handbook of critical psychology. Routledge.
34.
PyszczynskiT.DiarraM. (in press). Terror management theory: Toward a merger of existential and experimental approaches to understanding human behavior and experience. In HoffmanL. (Ed.), APA handbook of humanistic and existential psychology: Vol. 1. History, Research, Philosophy, & Theory. American Psychological Association.
35.
RobcisC. (2016). François Tosquelles and the psychiatric revolution in postwar France. Constellations, 23(2), 212–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8675.12223
36.
RobcisC. (2020). Frantz Fanon, institutional psychotherapy, and the decolonization of psychiatry. In TurnerL.NevilleH. A. (Eds.), Frantz Fanon’s psychotherapeutic approaches to clinical work: Practicing internationally with marginalized communities (pp. 23–38). Routledge.
37.
SchneiderK. J. (2007). The experiential liberation strategy of the existential-integrative model of therapy. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 37(1), 33–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-006-9032-y
38.
SchneiderK. J. (2015). Presence: The core contextual factor of effective psychotherapy. Existential Analysis, 2(2), 304–312.
39.
ShatzA. (2024). The rebel’s clinic: The revolutionary lives of Frantz Fanon. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
40.
SpaethD.VanderhoffJ., A.PintauroM.HoffmanL. (2025). Authenticity, self-awareness, and facing life directly in existential-humanistic psychotherapy. In HoffmanL.LacV. (Eds.), The evidence-base foundations of existential-humanistic therapy. American Psychological Association.
41.
TurnerL.NevilleH. A. (2020). Introduction. In TurnerL.NevilleH. A. (Eds.), Frantz Fanon’s psychotherapeutic approaches to clinical work: Practicing internationally with marginalized communities (pp. 1–19). Routledge.
42.
ValgoiM. J. (2020). Looking to Frantz Fanon to guide cross-racial trauma-informed therapy. In TurnerL.NevilleH. A. (Eds.), Frantz Fanon’s psychotherapeutic approaches to clinical work: Practicing internationally with marginalized communities (pp. 197–213). Routledge.
43.
van DeurzenE.KenwardR. (2005). Dictionary of existential psychotherapy and counselling. Sage.
WangX. (2019). The symbol of the iron house: From survivalism to existentialism. In HoffmanL.YangM.MansillaM.DiasJ.MoatsM.ClaypoolT. (Eds.), Existential psychology east–west (Vol. 2. Rev. & expanded ed., pp. 3–16). University Professors Press.
