The Antiracist Clinic: Political Freudianism and Black Psychoanalysis in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Abstract
The proposed project breaks new ground in the history and theory of psychoanalysis by examining a transnational tradition of psychoanalysis that sought to understand and undo the psychosocial roots of anti-Black racism. At its core, this project closely examines together, for the first time, the clinical and theoretical writings of the French-Martinican psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon (1925-1961), African American psychoanalysts and activists William Grier (1926-2015) and Price Cobbs (1928-2015), and Haitian Canadian analyst and anthropologist Willy Apollon (1937- ). By focusing on their understandings of the gendered forms of racial oppression as they manifest in published case histories and clinical vignettes, I argue that Fanon's, Grier's & Cobbs', and Apollon's insights push contemporary psychosocial theory in new directions and radicalize current public debates about racism and antiracism.
Unlike mainstream Freudian theory, Black psychoanalysts of the antiracist clinic practiced in community mental health clinics, and developed innovative theories of anti-Black racism out of their work treating Black/women patients. Accounting for Fanon's, Grier's & Cobbs', and Apollon's combined work not only fills crucial gaps in the history of psychiatry but advances contemporary psychosocial
theory: their analysis of the "psychosomatic" form of racial suffering displaces the very foundations of Freudian social criticism, which are based on the "normal" neurotic's psychic conflicts. Using a cutting-edge method of psychoanalytic case reasoning, I argue that the antiracist clinic illuminates the limits of traditional psychoanalysis-as both a theory and practice-by showing how 1) the psychic suffering of racism has a social cause (i.e., mental illness is political) and that 2) the structural nature of racial violence requires therapeutic interventions that go beyond the medical framework of "health," "normality," and the "individual."
Unlike mainstream Freudian theory, Black psychoanalysts of the antiracist clinic practiced in community mental health clinics, and developed innovative theories of anti-Black racism out of their work treating Black/women patients. Accounting for Fanon's, Grier's & Cobbs', and Apollon's combined work not only fills crucial gaps in the history of psychiatry but advances contemporary psychosocial
theory: their analysis of the "psychosomatic" form of racial suffering displaces the very foundations of Freudian social criticism, which are based on the "normal" neurotic's psychic conflicts. Using a cutting-edge method of psychoanalytic case reasoning, I argue that the antiracist clinic illuminates the limits of traditional psychoanalysis-as both a theory and practice-by showing how 1) the psychic suffering of racism has a social cause (i.e., mental illness is political) and that 2) the structural nature of racial violence requires therapeutic interventions that go beyond the medical framework of "health," "normality," and the "individual."
Publications
Chamberlin C
(2023)
Book Review Essay: "Colonial Trauma: A Study of the Psychic and Political Consequences of Colonial Oppression in Algeria" by Karima Lazali
in European Journal of Psychoanalysis
| Description | This project analyzes the work of three peripheral figures in the history of psychoanalytic praxis, with the purpose of comparing their approaches to thinking the social determinants of psychopathology and the subjective consequences of racial oppression, and of presenting their insights as part of a body of critique I speculatively call a Black tradition of political Freudianism. These figures include the French-Martinican psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, the African American psychoanalysts William Grier and Price Cobbs, and the Haitian Canadian analyst and philosopher, Willy Apollon. Drawing on Fanon's newly translated writings, this project has excavated his position within debates among French psychiatrists and psychoanalysts in the 1940s concerning the causes of "schizophrenia." Through this resurfacing of the intellectual terrain, I have reconstructed Fanon's theory of "reactionary psychosis," while revealing his complex engagement with the early work of Jacques Lacan. In the process, I have developed a new research method for interpreting the dossier of case histories on "colonial trauma" and "psychosomatic disorders" provided in Fanon's signal text, Wretched of the Earth (1961). In parallel, I have researched the archives and publications of Grier and Cobbs in the context of their work in community mental health clinics serving African American patients in the 1960s. This has shed light on their neglected work advancing the concept of an "identification with the aggressor," which I am developing into a new theory of the unconscious transmission of racial trauma. By constituting Grier's and Cobbs' scattered bibliography, which includes references to midcentury psychohistory, sociology, and the psychoanalysis of Sandor Ferenczi, I have identified new research resources-relevant for black cultural theory as well as psychosocial studies-for understanding the subjective consequences of social death, which manifest as a paranoia Grier and Cobbs call the "black norm." By comparing their work on paranoia with Fanon's work on psychosis, this project has opened a critical new research question concerning the racial politics of "madness," which continues to be explored. Through a project-supported visit, in 2023, to the Quebec Clinic for Young Adult Psychotics, I have generated new knowledge about Apollon's contemporary advancements in the treatment and theory of psychosis. The writing and research capabilities of this project have been improved through, among other things, the workshopping of a paper in the host department's History of Psychoanalysis research group, as well as through discussions of my work in workshop, paper, and seminar formats with mixed audiences of researchers and psychoanalytic practitioners in Essex, London, Berlin, Pittsburgh, New York, Boston, and Madrid. Finally, the initiation of two new research partnerships have unexpectedly advanced this project through the sharing of research resources, the dissemination of findings, and the workshopping of papers. They are the Volkswagen Freigeist Fellowship project 'Madness, Media, Milieus. Reconfiguring the Postwar Humanities' (Bauhaus University, Weimar) and the UKRI-funded project 'FREEPSY: Free Clinics and a Psychoanalysis for the People Project' (U Essex). |
| Exploitation Route | A cross-section of researchers in the humanities and theoretical social sciences-including African American studies, the medical humanities, the history of psychiatry, and critical philosophy-will be able to deploy the clinical cases that this project rediscovers and reinterprets as new paradigmatic "exemplars" through which some of the basic concepts Freudianism has bequeathed to the critical theory lexicon can be reconfigured, concepts which were in part derived from clinical experiences with (and historical situations particular to) primarily metropolitan European subjects. Furthermore, this project's results showing the subjective impact of enduring racial hierarchy within modern democracies, especially as it manifests in "severe" mental disturbance and in times of war, will be of interest to psychoanalysts, clinical social workers, and affiliated practitioners and policymakers in the mental health field, who now have a more robust historical framework at their disposal for better evaluating the cultural and social factors of mental illness, just as they will also be able to advance the theories of the three figures investigated in this project through their own clinical experiences, thus progressing conversations between researchers in the humanities and mental health professionals in the UK and elsewhere. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Education Healthcare |
| Description | Collaboration with the ERC awarded (UKRI funded) project 'FREEPSY: Free Clinics and a Psychoanalysis for the People' |
| Organisation | University of Essex |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Contributions include providing my expertise and intellectual input to various research meetings, writing workshops, seminars, and the development of research questions |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners have provided expertise and intellectual input about historical and contemporary sites of socially oriented psychoanalytic practice that was previously unknown to me, while also providing my research a new platform from which to disseminate its results |
| Impact | I gave a talk, "Psychoanalysis for the People," as part of the launch event of the FREEPSY research project at the Freud Museum (London); this collaboration is multi-disciplinary (history, anthropology, psychoanalytic theory, art) |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Collaboration with the VW Freigeist Fellowship project 'Madness, Media, Milieus. Reconfiguring the Humanities in Postwar Europe' |
| Organisation | Bauhaus University, Weimar |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I leveraged my expertise on the work of Jacques Lacan and Frantz Fanon to advise researchers of the 'Madness, Media, Milieus' project and shape their research itinerary; I have contributed to reading groups and participated in the workshopping of papers |
| Collaborator Contribution | Researchers of the 'Madness, Media, Milieus' project made previously unpublished and untranslated papers by major figures in the institutional psychiatry movement available to me, which advanced my understanding of the field and provided critical new research material relevant for the completion of my work |
| Impact | Outputs include a talk on a panel with the PI of 'Madness, Media, Milieus' (Dr. Elena Vogman) at the Lacan: Clinic and Culture Conference ('Freedom <> Madness: Fanon, Lacan, Tosquelles'); a talk that I gave on my work as part of a conference organized by the collaborating organization ('Burst Transferences'); and an upcoming co-presented talk with the PI at the Greene Clinic (New York); this collaboration is multi-disciplinary (media studies, philosophy, the history of psychiatry, the history of science) |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | 'Abolitionist Origins of American Psychoanalysis' paper presented at the History of Psychoanalysis Research Group (Essex) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In an intimate working group of approximately 10 researchers and students, I presented a chapter-in-progress of my project with the purpose of receiving feedback on my research methods and of introducing my work to colleagues at U Essex, which led to a productive exchange of ideas as well as suggestions for revision and publication strategy, and that led to an increased interest in my work on the racial histories of psychoanalysis, as well as a decision on the type of journal in which I plan to submit my writing |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Burst Transferences paper presentation at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 40 researchers, postgraduate students, and museum curators were present for a talk I gave on my current research at an event organized by the 'Madness, Media, Milieus' research group with whom I am collaborating; the intended purpose was to articulated the relevance of my work to the fields of philosophy and institutional psychiatry, which sparked lively discussion on its impact on the postwar humanities in Europe, and with attendees reporting an increased interest in the relationship of philosophy to the political tradition of Black psychoanalysts |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://kim.hfg-karlsruhe.de/capitalism-and-schizophrenia-year-51/ |
| Description | Capitalism, Identity, and Hate panel at the Balance Arts Center (New York) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 85 mental healthcare practitioners, social workers, researchers, and graduate and postgraduate students from across the United States attended a panel I organized with the purpose of introducing themes related to my current research, which sparked lively discussion about the politics of psychoanalysis; results included an increased interest in my applications of psychoanalytic history and theory, as well as my admission to a new research organization based in New York |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.group-for-independent-formation.org/event-details |
| Description | Freedom <> Madness: Fanon, Lacan, Tosquelles paper presentation at Lacan: Clinic and Culture Conference (Pittsburgh) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Paper presentation intended to introduce my current research to stakeholders in the US and Canada, at the largest and most prestigious Lacan conference in North America; approximately 100 researchers, postgraduate students, and psychoanalytic practitioners in attendance, which sparked questions and discussion afterwards and led to an increased visibility of Frantz Fanon's work in the field |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://spiritisabone.files.wordpress.com/2021/12/call-for-papers-lacan-clinic-and-culture-2022.pdf |
| Description | Introjection of the Slavemaster seminar at PPS (Essex) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 20 academic researchers and graduate and postgraduate students attended a talk I gave with the purpose of introducing new research I completed in the first year of my UKRI research project; a lively discussion followed, resulting in increased visibility of my archival work and an increase of interest in the historically underrepresented figures I introduced in this talk |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.essex.ac.uk/events/2023/11/15/introjection-of-the-slavemaster |
| Description | Madness and Institutions workshop at the Psychoanalytic Library (Berlin) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 20 students, psychoanalytic practitioners, and members of the general public attended a workshop I organized with the purpose of introducing my current research on the impact of Black psychoanalysts on the history of psychoanalysis and institutional psychiatry; attendees read pre-assigned readings, engaged in an organized discussion, and applied ideas developed there to their ongoing research; this led to an increase of interest in the topics and figures discussed in this event |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Psychoanalysis for the People talk at the Freud Museum (London) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Over 100 attendees were present for a talk I gave as part of the inaugural event of the FREEPSY ERC research project (U Essex), with the intended purpose of introducing my work on the antiracist traditions of psychoanalysis to a mixed audience of mental health care practitioners, graduate and postgraduate students, researchers, and the general public; it introduced a new perspective on the ethical and political stakes of psychoanalysis, and resulted in an increased visibility for forgotten histories of psychoanalytic work that has had a social mission |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Reactionary Psychosis (Case No. 2, Series B) paper presentation at the Psychology and the Other Conference (Boston) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 25 psychoanalytic practitioners and theorists attended a talk I gave on my current research, with the purpose of introducing the case reasoning method I am developing in my project, which increased awareness and debate about the relationship between European and postcolonial traditions of psychoanalysis, leading to an increased interest in the emergent field of postcolonial psychoanalysis |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.canva.com/design/DAFroneOWGk/yAp-10y2BcpMq8jzd5kilw/view#3 |