Optimal Psychology

Optimal Psychology is a holistic, African-centered framework developed by Dr. Linda James Myers, in which a person is understood as whole and interconnected rather than fragmented and alone. Its central move is to read human behavior as meaningful adaptation to a context rather than as a defect inside the individual.

Myers distinguishes an optimal orientation — the self extended through relationship and community, worth intrinsic — from a suboptimal one, where the self is separate and worth must be proven from outside. For CultureROOTS it is the explanatory lens that keeps the reading humane: a person's pattern is read as a response to conditions, and a healthy response to a hard environment is never treated as brokenness.

From African-centered psychology; Myers' Optimal Conceptualization Theory, with roots in the liberation-psychology tradition (Duran, Adames).