Social Theory Psychoanalysis And Racism

Sociological explanations of racism tend to concentrate on the structures and dynamics of modern life that facilitate discrimination and hierarchies of inequality. In doing so, they often fail to address why racial hatred arises (as opposed to how it arises) as well as to explain why it can be so visceral and explosive in character. Bringing together sociological perspectives with psychoanalytic concepts and tools, this text offers a clear, accessible and thought-provoking synthesis of varieties of theory, with the aim of clarifying the complex character of racism, discrimination and social exclusion in the contemporary world.

This edited volume draws upon Lacanian psychoanalytic theory to examine the conscious and unconscious forces underlying race as a social formation, conceptualizing race, racial identity, and racism in ways that go beyond traditional modes of psychoanalytic thought. Featuring contributions by Lacanian scholars from diverse geographical and disciplinary contexts, chapters span a wide breadth of topics, including white nationalism and contemporary debates over confederate monuments; emergent theories of race rooted in Afropessimism and postcolonialism; analyses of racism in apartheid and American slavery; clinical reflections on Latinx and other racialized patients; and applications of Lacan’s concepts of the lamella, drive and sexuation to processes of racialization. The collection both reorients readers’ understandings of race through its deployment of Lacanian theory and redefines the Lacanian subject through its theorizing of subjectivity in relation to race, racism and racial identification. Lacan and Race will be a definitive text for psychoanalytic theorists and contemporary scholars of race, appealing to readers across the fields of psychology, cultural studies, humanities, politics, and sociology.

Originally published in 1999 Social Theory and Psychoanalysis in Transition is a benchmark critique of Freudian theory in which a dialogue between the Frankfurt School, the Lacanian tradition and post-Lacanian developments in critical and feminist theory is developed. Considering afresh the relations between self and society, Elliot argues for the importance of imagination and the unconscious in understanding issues about the self and self-identity, ideology and power, sexual difference and gender.

Racism's external forms, from racial assault to petty discrimination, are readily recognized. However, its internal dimensions are easily overlooked: how can we understand what happens in the mind of those engaged in or experiencing racism? This book explores the inner relationship between the self and the socially stereotyped – 'racial' – other, providing a clinically derived model of how racist dynamics play out in the mind. Presenting an original theory of the psychology of racism, it: - Reviews and analyses the existing literature on racism and psychoanalysis, including an extensive study of Frantz Fanon's psychological model - Presents new, in-depth clinical observations of racist interchanges in the consulting room and group settings, and new perspectives on such interchanges in the outside world - Theorizes the way in which the race/class divide is internalized and operates, and considers the relationship between individual and institutional racism - Illustrates how racism can be addressed in group and individual settings Arguing that we cannot work with problems of racism without understanding the inner processes that underpin it, this book is an indispensable tool for trainee and experienced psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and counsellors. Its formulations are directly relevant to professionals and academics working across the boundaries of race in health, medical and social service settings.

Are divisive political forces the source of the historical persistence of racism and its alarming reoccurence in contemporary society? Or are there more subtle and more intractable causes? This collection of essays studies the seemingly permanent racial undercurrents of society, focusing on unconscious fantasies and identities.

The emerging field of psychoanalytic political theory has now reached a stage in its development and rapid evolution that deserves to be registered, systematically defined, and critically evaluated. This handbook provides the first reference volume which showcases the current state of psychoanalytic political theory, maps the genealogy of its development, identifies its conceptual and methodological resources, and highlights its analytical innovations as well as its critical promise. The handbook consists of 35 chapters, offering original, comprehensive, and critical reviews of this field of study. The chapters are divided into five thematic sections: • The figures section discusses the work of major psychoanalytic theorists who have considerably influenced the development of psychoanalytic political theory. • The traditions section genealogically recounts and critically reassesses the many attempts throughout the 20th century of experimenting with the articulation between psychoanalysis and political theory in a consistent way. • The concepts section asks what are the concepts that psychoanalysis offers for appropriation by political theory. • The themes section presents concrete examples of how psychoanalytic political theory can be productively applied in the analysis of racism, gender, nationalism, consumerism, and so on. • The challenges/controversies section captures how psychoanalytic political theory can lead the way towards theoretical and analytical innovation in many disciplinary fields that deal with cutting-edge issues. The Routledge Handbook of Psychoanalytic Political Theory will serve as a scholarly reference volume for all students and researchers studying political theory, psychoanalysis, and the history of ideas.

The Routledge Handbook of Psychoanalysis in the Social Sciences and Humanities provides a comprehensive, critical overview of the historical, theoretical and applied forms of psychoanalytical criticism. This path-breaking Handbook offers students new ways of understanding the powers and limits of psychoanalysis, and of the social, cultural and political possibilities of psychoanalytic critique. The book offers students and professionals clear and concise chapters on the development of psychoanalysis, introducing key theories that have influenced debates over the psyche, desire and emotion in the social sciences and humanities. There are substantive chapters on classical Freudian theory, Kleinian and Bionian theory, object-relations psychoanalysis, Lacanian and post-Lacanian approaches, feminist psychoanalysis, as well as postmodern trends in psychoanalysis. There is a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches to psychoanalytic critique, with contributions drawing from developments in sociology, politics, history, cultural studies, women’s studies and architecture.

Race in Psychoanalysis analyzes the often-unrecognized racism in psychoanalysis by examining how the colonialist discourse of late nineteenth-century anthropology made its way into Freud’s foundational texts, where it has remained and continues to exert a hidden influence. Recent racial violence, particularly in the US, has made many realize that academic and professional disciplines, as well as social and political institutions, need to be re-examined for the racial biases they may contain. Psychoanalysis is no exception. When Freud applied his insights to the history of the psyche and of civilization, he made liberal use of the anthropology of his time, which was steeped in colonial, racist thought. Although it has often been assumed that this usage was confined to his non-clinical works, this book argues that through the pivotal concept of "primitivity," it fed back into his theories of the psyche and of clinical technique as well. Celia Brickman examines how the discourse concerning the presumed primitivity of colonized and enslaved peoples contributed to psychoanalytic understandings of self and raced other. She shows how psychoanalytic constructions of race and gender are related, and how Freud’s attitudes towards primitivity were related to the anti-Semitism of his time. All of this is demonstrated to be part of the modernist aim of psychoanalysis, which seeks to create a modern subjectivity through a renegotiation of the past. Finally, the book shows how all of this can affect both clinician and patient within the contemporary clinical encounter. Race in Psychoanalysis is a pivotal work of significance for scholars, practitioners and students of psychoanalysis, psychologists, clinical social workers, and other clinicians whose work is informed by psychoanalytic insights, as well as those engaged in critical race and postcolonial studies.