Frantz Fanon's contribution to psychiatry: the psychology of racism and colonialism.

Frantz Fanon was born in Martinique, educated in France, and, after psychiatric training, administered a psychiatric hospital in Algeria. He made numerous contributions to psychiatry which are described in this paper. He is best remembered, however, for his four books: Black Skin, White Masks; Toward the African Revolution; A Dying Colonialism; and The Wretched of the Earth. Fanon became a spokesman for third-world denizens of all nations by describing in sensitive, clinically astute terms the psychology of racism and its untoward effects upon oppressor and oppressed. He also described the dehumanization and psychological treatment inherent in colonialist exploitation. With Dr. Fanon's premature death at the age of 37 in 1961, the world was deprived of one of the most eloquent and skilled spokesmen for those who are oppressed by the pro-white, anti-black paranoia which is racism. This paper describes in detail the nature of his singular contributions.