The deeper roots of this text are the countless children, families and communities throughout time to the present, that urge our conscious liberation from oppression's every day violence and killing in its subtle to brutal forms, from prejudice to war. Our human practice of oppression, through direct and indirect killings, psychological torture and everyday –isms (classism, racism, sexism, heterosexism etc.), is powerfully sustained by denial, cultural norms, public roles, private relationships, organizations, institutions, and laws. Here and throughout the world, liberation from oppression is basic to personal and collective survival and necessary for internal and external psychological freedom.

The death and life-long restrictions caused by oppression, throughout time, geography, and culture, warrant the study of oppression as a form of psychological pathology to end and transform. Depth psychology in the United States of America (U.S.), is not now, but could be about the psychological work of preventing the unjust torture, death, and life-diminishing of millions of people in the U.S. and around the world. A hermeneutic exploration of theoretical writings from liberation, critical, community, and depth psychology on themes of oppression, power, liberation, and politics, along with historical and present day examples of social movements provide ideas, values and experiences that depth psychology may incorporate to participate in the struggle from oppression to liberation. Depth psychology can choose to invest in the theoretical research, academic study, and institutional and clinical application of a social justice approach to bring oppression out of the individual and collective shadows and help stop the abuse that kills and psychologically harms primarily people of color, indigenous peoples, immigrants, and low wage working families. The electronic copy of this thesis is a PDF file which can be opened with Acrobat Reader 9.0.