A theorist of cultural de-alienation, Frantz Fanon, a French psychiatrist and essayist born in Martinique, was a fervent advocate of Algerian independence. As director of the Blida psychiatric hospital, he treated both torturers and victims of a pyramidal and inherently racist colonial system. Fanon denounced the psychological violence stemming from colonial power relations, such as self-denigration and acculturation, and strove to remedy these ills through his politically engaged writings.
