Azibo Nosology


The Azibo Nosology, originally created by Daudi Ajani ya Azibo in 1989, is a psychological diagnostic tool for African Descent People. The Nosology emerged in response to perpetual misdiagnosis and over-diagnosis of ADPs in Western society based on the DSM. Through the DSM, ADPs are often diagnosed as having more severe and antisocial symptoms and disorders. Like the DSM, the Azibo Nosology is an organized system for diagnosing disorders and pathologies. It differs from the DSM by centering around an Afrocentric definition of mental health instead of relying on Western perspective and instrumentation to diagnose people of different cultures. The Nosology defines Afrocentric mental health as psychological and behavioral functioning that aligns with African life and culture.
The Azibo Nosology has three tenets. The first is to take the perspective of ADPs in making diagnoses; the second is to assume that personality has a biogenetic basis; and the third is to recognize that everything has a natural order. The Azibo Nosology I was published in 1989 and contained 18 culturally-based disorders. In 2015, an updated version, the Azibo Nosology II, was released and contains diagnostic criteria for 55 disorders.

Daudi Ajani ya Azibo

Daudi Ajani ya Azibo is the main author of the Azibo Nosology and the Azibo Nosology II. As an undergraduate student at Rider University, he pursued research investigating college drop out rates of ADPs. This study motivated him to study psychology. He continued to earn his doctoral degree from Washington University in St. Louis where he was first introduced to an African-centered perspective. In graduate school his work centered upon African-centered personality theory, which eventually inspired him to publish the first Azibo Nosology in 1989.
Since 1987, Daudi Ajani ya Azibo has taught psychology and Africana Studies at colleges and universities across the United States.

History

Misdiagnosis of African Descent Peoples

ADPs have often been misdiagnosed or harmfully diagnosed throughout the history of Eurocentric psychology. Dating back to slavery, ADPs were often diagnosed with dysaesthesia aethiopica if they resisted slavery and with drapetomania if they tried to escape. This racism, disguised as diagnosis, has persisted into the 20th and 21st centuries. ADPs are disproportionately diagnosed with more severe symptoms and disorders, often leading to worse outcomes. For example, more Black children are diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, a stigmatized disorder associated with dangerous children, while more White children are diagnosed with attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder, even though neither disorder has a difference in prevalence between racial groups. Perpetual misdiagnosis often leads to ADPs underutilizing mental health treatment services or ending mental health treatment prematurely.
Daudi Ajani ya Azibo attributes the perpetual misdiagnosis of ADP to cross-cultural psychological approaches, like the DSM, that assume Eurocentric culture as the norm. Instead of a cross-cultural approach based on Eurocentric standards, Azibo proposed an African-centered diagnostic tool based on African-centered psychological theories, instruments, and data collection. This resulted in the first Azibo Nosology, a resource used to classify different cultural manifestations of mental disorders.

Founding Assumptions

The Azibo Nosology was developed based on the following assumptions:
1) The nature of the relationship between personality order and disorder
2) The utter criticality of the self in personality or mental order and disorder
3) The reality that values are fundamentally inherent in the diagnostic process

Classification of Disorders

Azibo Nosology I

The Azibo Nosology I, released in 1989, contains 18 Afrocentric culture-focused disorders. The culture-focused disorders are posited against Correct Orientation, which Azibo describes as a complete African personality. This means that an ADP's psychological components are congruent with its African origins. Azibo defines Correct Orientation as both genetic and psychological Blackness. Deviation from Correct Orientation results in a culture-focused diagnosis. The main diagnostic categories are: peripheral disorders, misorientation disorders, mentacide disorders, and other Black personality disorders.

Peripheral Personality Disorders

According to Azibo, peripheral disorders are individual personality differences that are non-racial, like shyness or assertiveness. It is possible for an ADP to experience a peripheral disorder and still be correctly oriented with their African origins.
According to Azibo, psychological misorientation is a term that encompasses disorders wherein ADPs operate without an Afrocentric belief system. It is genetic Blackness minus psychological Blackness.
According to Azibo, mentacide is the destruction of an ADP's mind, replacing it instead with either a Eurocentric orientation or a hatred of all things African. Azibo believes that mentacide is the most destructive psychological weapon.
In order to be diagnosed with one of the following Black Personality Disorders, an ADP must already meet criteria for Misorientation. Psychological Misorientation, either independent or in combination with Mentacide and Peripheral Disorders, is a diagnostic criteria for these disorders.
The Azibo Nosology II, released in 2015, is an updated version of the Azibo Nosology I and contains 55 disorders deriving from theory about the African personality construct.

Psychological Misorientation

Similar to the Azibo Nosology I, psychological misorientation functions as a diagnostic criteria for every disorder in the Nosology. An ADP must meet criteria for misorientation in order to be diagnosed with other disorders. Four disorders are specifically categorized as different types of psychological misorientation.
Five disorders are categorized as different types of mentacide.
Although misorientation still serves as a diagnostic criteria for the following disorders, they are not specifically categorized as types of misorientation or mentacide.
The Nosology was originally proposed as a tool to aid clinicians in more culturally guided symptom analysis and diagnosis when working with ADPs. However, despite this intention, the Azibo Nosology has been largely ignored in Eurocentric psychology and psychiatry.

Footnotes