Lecture by Glenn Helberg ­

Glenn Helberg ­specialized in Psychiatry at the University of Groningen and in Child and Youth Psychiatry at the University of Utrecht. When he was increasingly confronted by young people who were dealing with issues due to their different cultural backgrounds, he decided – through self-study – to specialize in transcultural psychiatry. He integrated theories and the approach towards mental illness from other parts of the world into his own work. According to Helberg, psychiatry has everything to do with what is happening in society:

He points out that we can only understand and change the inequality of the present if we know its history. That made him decide to also engage himself outside the consulting room on a more social and political level. For Helberg, the history of slavery in the Republic of the Seven United Provinces and later on throughout the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is important, because of its effect on the present. This is mainly noticeable in the inequality of the relationships between whites and blacks.

In this lecture he will talk about themes as white washing and colorism, and about what white people can do to stop ignoring their common history. How while we are looking at colonialism without realizing it is embedded in our daily routine, politics and in our common history. Ignoring, is a way of participating – you are always part of the game.