Ismahan Headshot

Ismahan Soukeyna Diop

Associate Professor and a clinical psychologist at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar

Ismahan Soukeyna Diop's Profile

I grew up in Senegal from a Djiboutian mother and a Malian father. At the age of 18, I went to Paris to start my studies in psychology, at the Université Paris 5 René Descartes. In my third year, I chose to go to Manchester (UK)  for an exchange year and this experience changed the perspective I had from international psychology. I went back to Paris for my master’s degree and back to Senegal in 2008, right after having obtained it. In various internship positions, in public hospitals in France or UK, I saw how many avenues there were for research in the mimical applications of global theories for people from the migration settled in Western countries. Indeed, there was a need to try and capture the core of psychology, to model it in an adequate way to fit for people who were not Europeans. When I returned to Senegal and started to work as a psychologist, I was interested in the questions of femininity and motherhood, and as I was working as a psychotherapist in a gynecology Clinic, I decided to start my PHD on an extension of this topic. Since then, I have evolved in my practice in two directions:

  • Researching on African mythology to find symbolic representations of womanhood and femininity, to explain gender issues in African societies
  • Extracting symbolic representation of oral tradition to enrich psychotherapy ad make it culturally relevant.

I am an Associate Professor and a clinical psychologist at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, in the Department of Psychology. I have significantly contributed to the construction of the Psychology teaching program (courses, syllabi, recruitment) and the Department of Psychology itself, founded in January 2021.
After my doctoral thesis on the topic « Hysterectomy, mastectomy and women’s status in Senegal», I have published in the field of cross-cultural psychology and gender issues. My research focuses on the application of African tales and mythology in psychotherapy. I have created Tampsy Optoa (Tales and African Mythology Psychotherapy / Outil Psychosocial de Tradition Orale Africaine) and won the American Psychology Association PsychSolution Grant in December 2020, to expand my research, develop and distribute it in Senegal and worldwide. My current research focuses on the topic of indigenous psychology and the exploration of indigenous techniques in the understanding, conceptualization and practice of psychology, for afro descendant populations. I am particularly interested on the impact of social, cultural and mythological representation of womanhood, femininity, maternity and emancipation, on girls’ education, and women’s coping strategies, from the lens of decolonial feminist psychology.

Peer-reviewed papers:

  1. Diop, I. (2012). « Approche interculturelle de la dépression post-partum (Cross-cultural approach to postpartum depression)». Dialogue, 195(1), 127-137. Doi :10.3917/dia.195.0127.
  2. Diop, I. S, (2012). « Hystérectomie et relation mère-fille dans le contexte culturel sénégalais (Hysterectomy and mother-daughter relationship) », Psychopathologie africaine, vol. 36, no. 3, p. 269- 283. ISSN: 0033-314X
  3. Diop, I. S, (2022). « L’emprise maternelle peut-elle être favorisée par la culture ? (Can culture reinforce maternal enmeshment ?) », Annales de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, no. 52/B 2022, p. 97- 110. ISSN: 0850-1254.

Books and book chapters:

  1. Diop, I. (2011). « 1. Le Sénégal. » in : Yolande Govindama éd., Temps et rites de passage: Naissance, enfance, culture et religion (pp. 21-39). Paris: Editions Karthala.
  2. Diop, I. S, (2017). « 6. Le rire nerveux en psychothérapie. (Nervous laughter in psychotherapy) » in: Babacar Mbaye Diop éd. L’esthétique du rire, Cahiers du Séminaire d’Esthétique (pp. 97-107). Presses Universitaires de Dakar.
  3. Diop, I. S, (2018). « La parole dans le processus thérapeutique. (The role of speaking in the psychotherapeutic process) » in: Babacar Mbaye Diop éd. L’esthétique de la parole, Cahiers du Séminaire d’Esthétique (pp. 67-76). Presses Universitaires de Dakar.
  4. Diop, I S., (2019), « African Mythology, Femininity, and Maternity. » Palgrave Macmillan, doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-24662-4
  5. Diop, I S., (2023), « Adornment, masquerade and African femininity. » Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN: 978- 3-031-28747-3