Lawrence R. Alschuler uses the ideas of Albert Memmi, Paulo Freire, and Jungian psychology to explain changes in the political consciousness of the oppressed. His analysis of the autobiographies of four Native people, from Guatemala and Canada, reveals how they attained "liberated consciousness" and healed their psychic wounds, inflicted by violence, exploitation, and discrimination. Their lessons and Alschuler's proposed public policies may be applicable to the oppressed in ethnically divided societies everywhere.

Explaining changes in the political consciousness of the oppressed using the ideas of Paulo Freire, Albert Memmi, and Jungian psychology, this original book explores how psychological bonds of oppression are broken and offers a psychopolitical theory for the analysis of the autobiographies of four Native people in Guatemala and Canada.