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Political Oppression and Children in South Africa: the Social Construction of Damaging Effects

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Political Violence and the Struggle in South Africa

Abstract

This chapter deals with a number of difficulties and dilemmas facing some South African mental health workers concerned with the psychological status of children1 living under the brutal circumstances of the current crisis2 of the apartheid regime. We focus particularly on issues relevant to mental health workers who align themselves broadly with the struggle for democracy and who belong to what have come to be known in South Africa as ‘progressive organizations’. Organizations to which mental health workers of progressive alignment may affiliate include, among many others, the Organisation for Appropriate Social Services (OASSSA), to which the authors of this article both belong, and the National Medical and Dental Council (NAMDA) at a conference of which an earlier version of this chapter was presented.3

Reprinted with permission from Leslie Swartz and Ann Levett, ‘Political Repression and Children in South Africa: the Social Construction of Damaging Effects’, Social Science and Medicine, 28, 741–50 © 1989 Pergamon Press Ltd.

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Notes

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© 1990 N. Chabani Manganyi and André du Toit

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Swartz, L., Levett, A. (1990). Political Oppression and Children in South Africa: the Social Construction of Damaging Effects. In: Manganyi, N.C., du Toit, A. (eds) Political Violence and the Struggle in South Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21074-9_10

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