ROCKLANDS, on becoming the first generation of black psychologists in post-apartheid South Africa

156pp., paperback, Somerset West, 2024

Professor Liezille Jacobs, Head of the Psychology Department at Rhodes University, "reframes psychology not only as a profession, but as a profound calling that is intertwined with personal and societal evolution." 

"When I first read the manuscript, I was excited and disturbed in equal measure. Excited because here was a break with conventional style and method when it comes to writing serious academic texts. The academic language was direct and unpretentious. The narrative thread that carried the story was nevertheless clear and consistent. Some of the elements of a solid psychobiography were evident throughout. This was exceptional academic writing that would no doubt upset the orderly, positive applecart that characterises much of academic psychology. Good, I thought. Disturbed because of the acutely painful stories being told about what a young, black girl, a student, a mother, researcher, teacher and assistant had to live through in the long and treacherous road to becoming a critical psychologist and, more recently, the first black woman as head of the psychology department at Rhodes University." Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Stellenbosch University

"I read the manuscript four times, and I was triggered, troubled, traumatised and totally impressed by this scholarly work which Prof. Liezille Jacobs has written using psychobiography to the the reader on her journey as a young black girl from Rocklands in Mitchell's Plain to being the first black woman heading the Psychology Department at Rhodes University ... I am not aware of any other South African scholarly work which recognises how a country’s political climate impacts individuals, families, communities and then inserts the personal and, dare I say, the intimate, to produce an academic text of this stature." Prof. Cheryl Potgieter, Durban University of Technology