'Whiteness' is a politically constructed category which needs to be
understood and dismantled because the system of racism so embedded
within our society harms us all. It has profound implications for human
psychology, an understanding of which is essential for supporting the
movement for change. This book explores these implications from a
psychoanalytic and Jungian analytic perspective.
The 'fragility' of whiteness, the colour-blind approach and the
silencing process of disavowal as they develop in the childhood of white
liberal families are considered as means of maintaining white privilege
and racism. A critique of the colonial roots of psychoanalytic theories
of Freud and Jung leads to questioning the de-linking of the individual
from society in modern day analytic thinking. The concept of the
cultural complex is suggested as a useful means of connecting the
individual and the social. Examples from the author's clinical practice
as well as from public life are used to illustrate the argument.
Relatively few black people join the psychoanalytic profession and those
who do describe training and membership as a difficult and painful
process. How racism operates in clinical work, supervision and our
institutions is explored, and whilst it can seem an intractable problem,
proposals are given for ways forward. This book will be of great
importance to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, social workers and all
those with an interest in the role of white privilege on mental health.
