Educational Learning Materials

Optimal Psychology & Marcus Garvey

Notes · Quotes · Western Contrast · Quiz · Timeline

Study Notes

Video + Garvey Quotes + Western Contrast
Each topic is presented with Optimal/Afrocentric view alongside Western/Suboptimal view for direct comparison. Garvey quotes are woven throughout.

1. What Is Optimal Psychology?

Optimal / Afrocentric View

Focuses on higher stages of human development, rooted in the wisdom tradition of African deep thought traceable to ancient Kemet/Nubia. Reality is understood as fundamentally spiritual — all is energy, consciousness, divine being. Worth is intrinsic, not based on external achievement. The goal is conscious union with the divine — recognizing ourselves as divine spirits having a human experience.

Suboptimal / Western View

Reality is treated as primarily material — what can be seen, measured, and possessed. Human worth is judged by external criteria: income, status, credentials, physical appearance. The individual is the primary unit of health. Mental health is defined by conformity to culturally dominant norms.

"God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Philosophy and Opinions (1923)

Dr. Myers connects this: Garvey's quote affirms that our divine origin (what God/Nature first made us) is our true identity — the foundation of optimal psychology. Our "genius" is the self-actualization within that divine framework, not the accumulation of material goods.

2. Origins: Why Was Optimal Psychology Developed?

Dr. Myers's Pivotal Question (c. 1972)

As a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Ohio State, Dr. Myers was "troubled by the fact that her professors did not see the insanity of their cultural heritage." She identified two distinct ways of being in the world:

  • Those who enslaved, colonized, and trafficked millions — and called it civilization
  • African people who endured 500 years of brutal captivity yet emerged as "the moral and spiritual leaders in the country, leading the nation to justice for all"

These opposite outcomes demanded a theory that explained them — not through biology, but through cultural worldview and deep structure assumptions.

African Approach to "Deviance"

In traditional African culture, deviant behavior is seen as a reflection of what is going on in the larger group. Therefore the community is treated, not just the individual. Healing is collective.

Western Approach to "Deviance"

The person labeled deviant is seen as the toxic and sick one. Treatment targets the individual, often removing them from community. The group's role in dysfunction is ignored.

"Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey

3. Cultural Deep Structure & Worldview

What Is Cultural Deep Structure?

Beneath our behaviors and perceptions are foundational assumptions about reality, knowledge, and value. Dr. Myers calls this "cultural deep structure." Most people are unaware of these assumptions — they simply feel like "the way things are."

Optimal Worldview Assumptions

• Reality is spiritual — all is mind/consciousness/energy
• Knowledge comes through spirit and extended self
• Value lies in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding
• The individual is part of a unified whole
• Interdependence and interrelatedness of all things
• Intrinsic self-worth

Suboptimal Worldview Assumptions

• Reality is primarily material phenomenon
• Knowledge comes through the senses alone
• Value lies in acquiring objects and status
• The self is a separate, autonomous individual
• Competition and fragmentation
• Worth based on external criteria

"We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, for though others may free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is our only ruler; sovereign."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Speech (1937)

Garvey's "mental slavery" is precisely what Dr. Myers calls conceptual incarceration — when oppressed people internalize the oppressor's worldview and think suboptimal assumptions are simply "reality."

4. True Identity & Liberation Psychology

Optimal View of Self

Our true identity is divine spirit manifesting in human form. The purpose of life is to come to realize our conscious union with the divine. The "false ego" — defining self by external measures — must be transcended. Liberation is internal, psychological, and spiritual first.

Western View of Self

Identity is constructed through social roles, achievements, possessions, and group memberships. The ego is the center of the self. Therapy typically aims to adjust the ego to function better within existing social structures, not to transcend those structures.

"If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Philosophy and Opinions
"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Speech (1921)

Both quotes align with optimal psychology's claim that a secure, grounded identity — rooted in cultural and spiritual heritage — is the prerequisite for true liberation. C. J. Woodson said it similarly: "If you control the way people think, you don't have to relegate them to an inferior status. They will seek it for themselves."

5. Education, Knowledge & the "Comprehensive Approach"

Optimal / Afrocentric Education

Knowledge is integrated and holistic. The big picture is given first; then students see how the pieces fit. Wisdom — not just information — is the goal. History, science, spirituality, and community are woven into one knowledge system. Children do better when they see the interconnectedness.

Western Fragmented Education

Knowledge is siloed and piecemeal: math here, music there, literature elsewhere — with no integrating framework. Students (especially Black children) find it unengaging because the purpose and relatedness are absent. Wisdom as an explicit goal is absent.

"Never forget that intelligence rules the world and ignorance carries the burden. Therefore, remove yourself as far as possible from ignorance and seek as far as possible to be intelligent."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey
"Always try to associate with people from whom you can learn something. All the knowledge that you want is in the world, and all you have to do is go and seek it."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey

6. Health, Weathering & Racial Stress

Key Concept: "Weathering"

The constant bombardment of racism, microaggressions, and systemic violence takes a documented physiological toll on Black bodies — a phenomenon researchers call weathering. This stress is so normalized that many people don't recognize how profoundly it is harming their health, contributing to major health disparities.

Optimal Response to Racial Stress

By grounding identity in an optimal worldview — intrinsic spiritual worth, not external validation — individuals can develop resilience and inoculation against the worst effects of racism. We have the capacity to not be impacted so negatively when we shift away from the faulty worldview.

Western Clinical Response

Traditional psychology often treats racial trauma through individual therapy focused on cognitive coping within the existing system. It rarely challenges the systemic worldview that generates the trauma. It treats the symptom in the individual, not the cause in the culture.

"The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself, but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you into eternity."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Philosophy and Opinions

7. Desegregation, Self-Reliance & Community Loss

Dr. Myers & Dr. Julius Garvey's Exchange

Both scholars distinguished between desegregation (access to public facilities) and integration (absorption into white institutions). The push for integration led to the destruction of thriving Black institutions — schools with Black teachers who invested in Black children, businesses, community bonds. Dr. Julius Garvey noted: "Our community is still where it always was if not further back."

Garvey's Vision: Self-Determination

Garvey built the UNIA — the largest Black mass movement in history — on the premise of Black self-determination, economic independence, and community building. The strategy was equality through self-sufficiency, not assimilation.

Assimilationist Logic

The belief that sitting next to white children in school would close achievement gaps was based on a suboptimal premise: that proximity to whiteness confers value. It ignored the role of culturally responsive teaching, community investment, and psychological safety.

"You at this time can only be destroyed by yourselves, from within and not from without. You have reached the point where the victory is to be won from within and can only be lost from within."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey

8. Garvey, Optimal Psychology & the Wisdom Tradition

The Long Chain of Transmission

Dr. Myers situates both her work and Garvey's within a continuous wisdom tradition traceable to ancient Kemet (Egypt), Nubia, and across the African diaspora. The name the ancient Africans gave themselves — Alkebu-lan — means "Mother of Civilization." They knew their role and named it.

Garvey as Optimal Thinker

Garvey operated from an optimal set of assumptions: collective over individual, spiritual grounding, the intrinsic greatness of African people, service to the whole. He amassed the largest liberation movement in Black history because his worldview was aligned with deep human truth.

Western Psychology's "Evidence Base"

Western psychology demands randomized controlled trials and paper-pencil tests as evidence. Optimal psychology uses history itself as evidence — what have people done, what outcomes did they produce? The survival and moral leadership of African people through 500 years of enslavement is its own evidence.

"If we as a people realized the greatness from which we came, we would be less likely to disrespect ourselves."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey
"The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Speech (1924)

9. Dr. Myers's Key Works (Tools for Transformation)

1988

Understanding an Afrocentric Worldview: Introduction to an Optimal Psychology

Foundational text. Presents the two worldviews side-by-side with a comprehensive comparison table in the appendix.

2003

Our Health Matters: Guide to an African (Indigenous) American Psychology

Community-participatory guide for creating optimal health, developed with community input. Can be used individually or collectively.

2004

Blessed Assurance: Deep Thought and Meditations in the Tradition and Wisdom of Our Ancestors

52 meditations — one per week for a full year — designed for spiritual elevation and overcoming the "mental condition" of oppression.

10. Upcoming Courses: Marcus Garvey Education Academy / Optimal Psychology Institute

"The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself, but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you into eternity."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey (Course 3's title is drawn from this tradition)

Contrast Table

Optimal vs. Western/Suboptimal Psychology

This table summarizes the core philosophical and practical differences between Optimal Psychology (rooted in African wisdom traditions) and the dominant Western psychological framework. Use it alongside the Garvey quotes to see how his vision maps onto each row.

Dimension 🌿 Optimal / Afrocentric View ⚙️ Suboptimal / Western View
Nature of Reality Spiritual — all is energy, mind, consciousness. The material is a manifestation of the spiritual. Material — reality is essentially physical phenomenon; spirit (if acknowledged at all) is secondary.
Source of Knowledge Through spirit, intuition, ancestral wisdom, and collective lived experience. Ancient Kemetic texts are valid sources. Through the five senses and empirical scientific measurement only. Personal/spiritual knowing is suspect.
Basis of Self-Worth Intrinsic — worth is inherent in being a divine spirit. No external measure can add or diminish it. Extrinsic — worth is tied to income, education credentials, status, appearance, and productivity.
Identity Divine spirit having a human experience. Identity is rooted in spiritual lineage and collective cultural heritage. A discrete individual defined by personal history, social roles, psychological traits, and demographic categories.
Unit of Health The collective. Individual symptoms reflect group dysfunction. Healing involves the whole community. The individual. Treatment targets the person who deviates; the system is rarely examined.
Highest Value Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Service to the whole. The Greater Good. Acquisition of material goods, profit maximization, individual achievement regardless of cost to others.
Relationship to Nature Holistic and integrated. Humans are part of an interdependent web of life. Environmental health is inseparable from human health. Dominion and exploitation. Nature is a resource to be managed and consumed for economic gain.
Approach to Education Comprehensive and integrated. The big picture is given first; parts are shown in relation to the whole. Wisdom is the goal. Fragmented and siloed. Subjects are taught in isolation with no integrating framework. Information transfer is the goal.
Understanding of Liberation Internal first — freeing the mind from conceptual incarceration. Then collective political and economic self-determination. External — legal rights, political representation, and assimilation into existing power structures.
Relationship to Time Cyclical and expansive — "eternity is our measurement." Ancestors are present; decisions are made for the seventh generation. Linear and short-term. Quarterly profits, electoral cycles. The long-term consequence is deprioritized.
Approach to "Deviance" A signal about the whole group. We treat the collective, examine the cultural conditions that produce the symptom. The individual is the problem. Diagnosis, medication, and behavior modification target the "deviant" person.
Role of Spirituality Central and non-negotiable. Spiritual development IS psychological development. They cannot be separated. Excluded from clinical psychology (pre-1980s) or at best treated as a "coping resource" separate from science.
Evidence Base Historical outcomes, community testimony, the survival and moral leadership of African people over centuries. Randomized controlled trials, standardized assessments, peer-reviewed journals. Cultural bias in measurement is often unexamined.
View of African Heritage Africa is the "Mother of Civilization" (Alkebu-lan). African deep thought is the foundation of human knowledge. Africa is portrayed as the starting point of "primitive" development that Western civilization surpassed.

Connecting Garvey's Vision to the Contrast

"The white man's propaganda has made him the master of the world, and all those who have come in contact with it and accepted it have become his slaves."
— Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Garvey here describes precisely what Dr. Myers calls conceptual incarceration — the internalization of a suboptimal worldview that serves the oppressor's interests. The contrast table above is a map of that propaganda versus the alternative. Teaching students to see the contrast is itself an act of liberation.

Assessment Quiz

GoHighLevel Compatible • Mixed Format

This quiz includes multiple-choice, true/false, matching, fill-in-the-blank, and short-answer questions. Click "Show Answer" to reveal the answer key for each question. Questions are suitable for GoHighLevel survey/quiz format.

Question 1 of 15

Multiple Choice

According to Dr. Linda James Myers, the foundational assumption of optimal psychology about the nature of reality is:

Correct Answer: B — Dr. Myers states that a core shift required by optimal psychology is understanding reality as a spiritual phenomenon — "all is energy, all is mind, all is consciousness" — rather than primarily material.

Question 2 of 15

True / False

In traditional African culture as described by Dr. Myers, deviant behavior is treated by focusing exclusively on the individual who displays it.

False. In traditional African culture, deviance is seen as a reflection of what is happening in the larger group. Therefore, the collective is treated — not just the individual. This is a fundamental departure from Western clinical psychology.

Question 3 of 15

Multiple Choice

Marcus Garvey's quote — "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots" — most directly supports which core principle of optimal psychology?

Correct Answer: C — Optimal psychology holds that a secure identity rooted in cultural heritage is foundational to psychological health and liberation. Garvey's metaphor of "roots" maps directly onto this.

Question 4 of 15

Fill in the Blank

Dr. Myers describes the phenomenon by which the constant experience of racism damages the physical and mental health of Black people over time as .

Answer: Weathering — "Weathering" refers to the documented physiological and psychological toll of sustained racial stress on Black bodies. Dr. Myers notes this is so normalized that many are unaware of how profoundly it is harming their health.

Question 5 of 15

Multiple Choice

What term does Dr. Myers use to describe the internalization of the oppressor's worldview — when people are so conditioned by a dominant cultural framework they cannot see beyond it?

Correct Answer: B — Dr. Myers uses "conceptual incarceration" or "mental bondage" to describe what Garvey called "mental slavery." It refers to being trapped within assumptions of a suboptimal worldview that has been imposed through what she calls "epistemic violence."

Question 6 of 15

True / False

Dr. Myers began developing the theory of optimal psychology in the early 1990s in response to multicultural psychology debates.

False. Dr. Myers entered Ohio State's doctoral program in clinical psychology in 1972 and graduated in 1975. She began developing optimal psychology theory during this period — in the early to mid-1970s — through her general's paper research on traditional African approaches to deviance. Her first book was published in 1988.

Question 7 of 15

Matching

Match each Garvey quote to its corresponding concept in optimal psychology:

A. "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds." 1. Intrinsic self-worth and divine origin
B. "God and Nature first made us what we are… Let the sky and God be our limit." 2. Conceptual incarceration / liberation psychology
C. "A people without knowledge of their history… is like a tree without roots." 3. Service to the whole / collective well-being
D. "The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself…" 4. Cultural heritage as the root of psychological health
Answers: A → 2 | B → 1 | C → 4 | D → 3

Question 8 of 15

Multiple Choice

According to the discussion with Dr. Julius Garvey, which of the following most accurately describes the problem with post-Brown v. Board integration (as opposed to desegregation)?

Correct Answer: C — Both Dr. Myers and Dr. Julius Garvey argued that integration destroyed Black schools, businesses, and community bonds — the very infrastructure that was producing educated, grounded young people — in exchange for access to institutions where Black children were treated as inferior and ineducable.

Question 9 of 15

Short Answer

In your own words, explain what Dr. Myers means by a "comprehensive approach" to knowledge, and why she argues that the Western educational system's fragmented approach is harmful — particularly for Black children.

Model Answer: A comprehensive approach gives students the big picture first — how all knowledge is interconnected and serves the goal of wisdom — then shows how individual subjects fit into that whole. Dr. Myers argues that the Western system's siloed approach (math here, music there, literature elsewhere) is not just inefficient but psychologically harmful, especially for Black children who already lack the cultural affirmation that would make fragmented knowledge feel relevant. When children cannot see the point or the connections, engagement drops. A holistic framework rooted in an Afrocentric worldview produces deeper learning and a stronger sense of identity and purpose.

Question 10 of 15

Multiple Choice

Dr. Myers traveled to which continent in the early 1970s to study how traditional cultures understood and treated deviance — forming the evidence base for optimal psychology?

Correct Answer: C — Africa. Dr. Myers traveled across the African continent to study how traditional African cultures perceived and addressed deviance. She found that these cultures saw deviance as a collective rather than individual problem — a key insight that formed the empirical foundation of optimal psychology.

Question 11 of 15

True / False

Optimal psychology is exclusively for people of African descent and does not apply to people of other cultural backgrounds.

False. While optimal psychology is rooted in African wisdom traditions, Dr. Myers is explicit that optimal psychology can lead to unity across all cultures. It represents the highest stages of human development available to all people. She also notes convergence with Eastern philosophies and modern quantum physics — suggesting it reflects a universal human truth rather than a culturally exclusive one.

Question 12 of 15

Fill in the Blank

The ancient African name for Africa — which means "Mother of Civilization" — as cited by Dr. Myers is .

Answer: Alkebu-lan (also written Alkebulan or Alibulan) — Dr. Myers notes that the ancient Africans named their continent and themselves, and that name translates to "Mother of Civilization." She sees this as evidence that they understood their foundational role in human culture and deliberately carried that identity forward.

Question 13 of 15

Multiple Choice

Dr. Myers's book Blessed Assurance is structured around how many meditations, designed to be used at what pace?

Correct Answer: B — Blessed Assurance contains 52 meditations — one for each week of the year. Dr. Myers states that if students take one meditation per week, "by the end of the year, they will have a spiritual elevation." It is designed to help people heal from the mental conditioning of oppression and grow spiritually.

Question 14 of 15

Short Answer

How does optimal psychology define "true liberation"? How does this differ from how liberation is typically understood in a Western political framework? Reference at least one Garvey quote in your response.

Model Answer: For optimal psychology, true liberation begins internally — it is psychological and spiritual first. It means freeing the mind from the false worldview that bases human worth on external criteria and accepts the oppressor's definition of reality. Dr. Myers describes it as "how we free our minds, how we overcome mental slavery, how we take on a worldview that allows us to be confident and secure enough that we can stand for what needs to be stood for." In contrast, a Western political framework typically defines liberation as access — voting rights, civil rights, representation in existing institutions — without questioning the underlying worldview those institutions embody. Garvey said, "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds" — placing the primary work of liberation inside each individual's consciousness, not in external political victories. Political freedom without mental liberation, Garvey and Myers both suggest, leaves people vulnerable to reenslavement through propaganda and conceptual incarceration.

Question 15 of 15

Multiple Choice

According to Dr. Myers, the most significant challenge people face in understanding and adopting optimal psychology is:

Correct Answer: B — Dr. Myers states the biggest challenge is "the requirement of shifting one's consciousness, one's mindset, one's conceptual system or set of assumptions undergirding their perceptions, thoughts, feelings and behavior." People have been not only socialized into the suboptimal worldview but rewarded for it and told it represents the pinnacle of human development. Undoing that while examining it critically is a significant cognitive and psychological undertaking.

Life & Legacy Timeline

Dr. Linda James Myers

This timeline traces the life of Dr. Myers and the progressive development of Optimal Psychology — from her childhood formation to her current work with the Marcus Garvey Education Academy.

1948 — Birth

Linda James Myers is Born

Born in the United States and raised in western Kansas. Her father was a rancher and her mother a schoolteacher. She grew up in a predominantly white community, an experience that would later give her intimate knowledge of white culture — but never led her to see whiteness as superior. Her ancestors were non-immigrant Africans who had traveled west for self-determination — a heritage of resilience and independence she would carry into her work.

Late 1950s–1960s — Formative Years

The Civil Rights Era as Lived Experience

Coming home from school and seeing fire hoses and police dogs turned on Black children on television. "That's when I grew up realizing there's something wrong with them." This era of witnessed atrocity would fuel her later drive to define sanity and insanity on her own terms — not the terms of a culture that called its own violence "civilization."

Mid-1960s — Undergraduate

Kansas State Teachers College (Emporia State University)

Earned her Bachelor of Science in psychology and special education, and subsequently her Master of Science in school psychology. Upon completing her school psychology internship, she recognized that school psychology was not her calling and moved to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln as a psychology instructor. She enjoyed university-level teaching and determined that a doctorate was necessary to continue.

1972 — Doctoral Studies Begin

Enters Ohio State University's Clinical Psychology PhD Program

A pivotal window in time: OSU had just brought in new faculty from Harvard and UC Berkeley who were challenging existing assumptions about mental health. Dr. Myers entered this environment already asking the questions that Western psychology could not answer: What worldview enables a culture to enslave others and call it progress? And what worldview enables enslaved people to survive centuries of brutality and emerge as moral leaders?

The Founding Question

"Who enslaves people and thinks it's okay? Who steals people's land and calls it colonization and thinks it's okay? So that seemed crazy to me. I decided these people are trying to tell me this is just normal — the nature of human nature. I knew that wasn't true." — Dr. Linda James Myers

1972–1974 — Field Research

Research Travels Across Africa

For her pre-dissertation "general's paper," Dr. Myers traveled the African continent to study how traditional cultures understood and treated deviant behavior. This foundational research revealed that African approaches treated deviance as a community reflection — a paradigm-shattering contrast to Western clinical psychology's individualist model. She also began studying ancient Kemetic and Nubian texts, accessing the glyphs that revealed ancient African assumptions about reality and human nature.

1975 — PhD Awarded

Doctor of Philosophy, Clinical Psychology — Ohio State University

Graduates with her PhD and the foundational evidence base for what will become Optimal Psychology — a theory that had been built not just from Western literature but from African field research, ancient Kemetic texts, and critical analysis of cultural deep structure. She joins the OSU faculty immediately as an assistant professor in Black Studies.

1975–2005 — Academic Career at Ohio State

Faculty Development & Theory Building

Rises through the faculty ranks to full professor at OSU with affiliations in African American & African Studies, Psychology, and Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine. Develops the psychology curriculum for the Department of Black Studies. Trains psychiatry residents. Directs the African American/African Studies Community Extension Center. Conducts lectures and trainings in England, Brazil, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Haiti, South Africa, and across the United States. The theory of Optimal Conceptual Theory (OCT) is refined through decades of teaching, community work, and scholarship.

1989

Ohio Women's Hall of Fame

Named to the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame for contributions in health and education — one of the first major public recognitions of her work's community impact.

1988 — First Book

Understanding an Afrocentric Worldview: Introduction to an Optimal Psychology

The foundational text of optimal psychology. Presents the theory of optimal vs. suboptimal worldview in full, with a detailed comparison table of cultural deep-structure assumptions. This book has been used as a primary treatment modality in community behavioral health centers and — remarkably — sampled on a rap CD in the early 1990s, demonstrating its reach into popular culture.

1990–1991

President, Association of Black Psychologists

Serves as president of the Association of Black Psychologists — a formal recognition of her leadership in the field. Later named Distinguished Psychologist by the same organization.

1993

First International Conference in Accra, Ghana

Presents "Traditional Medicine and Optimal Theory: Improving Health Practices in Contemporary Times" at the National Council of Black Studies' 1st International Conference in Ghana — cementing the global reach of optimal psychology.

1994

Mary McLeod Bethune / Carter G. Woodson Award

Receives the Bethune/Woodson Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Development and Promotion of Black Studies from the National Council of Black Studies — one of the most prestigious honors in African American academic scholarship.

2003 — Second Book

Our Health Matters: Guide to an African (Indigenous) American Psychology

Developed through a community participatory research grant, this book goes into communities and asks: "What would health look like to you? What would create health?" The result is a practical guide rooted in optimal psychology that can be used individually or collectively. Represents the maturation of OCT from academic theory into applied community health practice.

2004 — Third Book

Blessed Assurance: Deep Thought and Meditations in the Wisdom Tradition of Our Ancestors

In response to people saying "I understand the theory, but how do I actually develop spiritually?" — Dr. Myers develops 52 weekly meditations for a full year of spiritual elevation. The book is described as coming through her as a transmission from spirit. Now used in study groups including the Safe Black Space group that meets weekly on Wednesdays.

2005

Social Justice Action Award — Teachers College, Columbia University

Honored by Teachers College at Columbia University for her lifelong commitment to social justice through psychological theory and practice.

2005–2007

Dean, Graduate School of Psychology — New College of California, San Francisco

Serves as Dean of the Graduate School of Psychology at New College of California in San Francisco — one of the most progressive graduate psychology programs in the country. Returns to OSU after this period.

2008 — Co-Edited Volume

Re-Centering Culture and Knowledge in Conflict Resolution Practice

Expands optimal psychology's application to conflict resolution — demonstrating the theory's comprehensive reach from individual mental health, to community health, to international conflict resolution frameworks.

2016

Named Most Important African American Pioneer in Mental Health

Named One of the Most Important African American Pioneers in Mental Health by the National Mental Health Association — a recognition of five decades of transformative scholarship and community practice.

2018

9th National Conference on African/Black Psychology Legacy Award

Receives the Legacy Award at the 9th National Conference on African/Black Psychology — a capstone recognition of her career's contribution to the field.

2021

Contribution to Ethical Standards of Black Psychologists

Contributes to the updated Ethical Standards of Black Psychologists — helping to define the ethical grounding of the field she has shaped for nearly 50 years.

Ongoing — Emerita

Professor Emerita, Ohio State University

Continues as Professor Emerita at OSU's Department of African American and African Studies. Founder and CEO of the Center for Optimal Health and the Optimal Psychology Institute. Continues the Blessed Assurance study group (weekly Wednesdays) in partnership with Safe Black Space and Dr. Christy Haggins.

Present & Future

Marcus Garvey Education Academy & Upcoming Course Series

In partnership with the Marcus Garvey Education Academy and her Optimal Psychology Institute, Dr. Myers is developing a three-course series: (1) Keys to Reclaiming Mind, Body, and Soul Sovereignty; (2) Recognizing the Enemy in the Quest for Health and Wholeness; and (3) Unifying to Build to Eternity. These courses are designed to take students through the full transformation process — healing, empowerment, and collective liberation — that optimal psychology and the Garveyite tradition both envision.

"Each of us can take our rightful place in the liberation and upliftment, the illumination of the soul, that's so very desperately needed at this time."
— Dr. Linda James Myers