Exploring racism

Whilst the concept of 'race' has no basis in genetics or biology, the dynamics of racism pervade all aspects of modern life--including the consulting room. In this paper the relationship between a white therapist and a black patient is explored through an unbidden thought and a verbal slip that occurred in the course of the therapy. The amplification and examination of these unwanted 'slips' are used to shed light on the subtleties of the effects of difference in colour on the relationship. It is argued here that the interaction reflects and illuminates the asymmetrical relationship between 'black' and 'white' in modern-western society. This is then considered using the concepts of the cultural unconscious and social unconscious as ways of understanding the tenacity of racism in ourselves.     

Plague God Image in the Clinic1

This paper selects four dreams before and during COVID-19 which constellated the Plague God image in Chinese culture. The author argues that this shows evidence that the origins of the modern psyche, although hidden, are preserved and living within the ancient anima mundi.     

Multifactorial pathways facilitate resilience among kindergarteners at risk for dyslexia: A longitudinal behavioral and neuroimaging study

Recent efforts have focused on screening methods to identify children at risk for dyslexia as early as preschool/kindergarten. Unfortunately, while low sensitivity leads to under‐identification of at‐risk children, low specificity can lead to over‐identification, resulting in inaccurate allocation of limited educational resources. The present study focused on children identified as at‐risk in kindergarten who do not subsequently develop poor reading skills to specify factors associated with better reading outcomes among at‐risk children. Early screening was conducted in kindergarten and a subset of children was tracked longitudinally until second grade. Potential protective factors were evaluated at cognitive‐linguistic, environmental, and neural levels. Relative to at‐risk kindergarteners with subsequent poor reading, those with typical reading outcomes were characterized by significantly higher socioeconomic status (SES), speech production accuracy, and structural organization of the posterior right‐hemispheric superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF). A positive association between structural organization of the right SLF and subsequent decoding skills was found to be specific to at‐risk children and not observed among typical controls. Among at‐risk children, several kindergarten‐age factors were found to significantly contribute to the prediction of subsequent decoding skills: white matter organization in the posterior right SLF, age, gender, SES, and phonological awareness. These findings suggest that putative compensatory mechanisms are already present by the start of kindergarten. The right SLF, in conjunction with the cognitive‐linguistic and socioeconomic factors identified, may play an important role in facilitating reading development among at‐risk children. This study has important implications for approaches to early screening, and assessment strategies for at‐risk children.     

Racial and cultural in-betweenness meet in the consulting room: the case of ‘Anna’

An upper-middle-class black woman, who grew up adapting to a white-dominated environment, entered the consulting room of a multicultural ‘white-passing’ analyst, and here unique emotional experiences were reflected in dream images of racial disorganization, internal racism, and identity confusion. While sorting through the analysand’s internal dynamics, the external world erupted in May 2020 with the murder of George Floyd, catapulting both analysand and analyst (and the nation) into a transformative confrontation with their mutual, deep-seated woundings of American racial and cultural inequities. The analysand’s racial complexity directly impacted the analyst’s ‘white-passing’ privilege, bringing into question established classifications of American whiteness. Overlapping dynamics and experiences as ‘in-betweeners’ and ‘outsiders’ – a black woman subsumed by a white-dominated society and an immigrant refugee acculturated to American life – provided a common exilic ground for mutual understanding and mirroring. The analyst explores the racial and multicultural straddling that served as a lens into the analysand’s fragmented racial identity during the eruption of American racial unrest.     

‘Shh … quiet! Here they come.’ Black employees as targets of office gossip

This study explored black employees’ experiences of racial profiling by their white peers through the medium of gossip at a historically white, South African university. Participants consisted of 24 black employees (males = 50%, females = 50%; support staff = 50%, academic staff = 50%). The employees completed a semi-structured interview that elicited their perceptions of the settings in which gossip about black employees occurred, the perceived intentions of such gossip, and their responses to it. The data obtained was thematically analysed. Findings suggested that the gossip targeted black employees who were absent from meetings, and that such gossip undermined the work performance and morale of these employees.     

Race,power and intimacy in the intersubjective field: the intersection of racialised cultural complexes and personal complexes

This paper presents work with a biracial young woman, in the context of a predominantly white Jungian training organisation. The patient's relational difficulties and her struggle to integrate different aspects of her personality are understood in terms of the overlapping influences of developmental trauma, transgenerational trauma relating to the legacy of slavery in the Caribbean, conflictual racial identities, internalised racism, and the British black/white racial cultural complex. The author presents her understanding of an unfolding dynamic in the analytic relationship in which the black slave/white master schema was apparently reversed between them, with the white analyst becoming subservient to the black patient. The paper tracks the process through which trust was built alongside the development of this joint defence against intimacy ‐ which eventually had to be relinquished by both partners in the dyad. A white on black ‘rescue fantasy’, identified by the patient as a self‐serving part of her father's personality, is explored in relation to the analytic relationship and the training context.     

The Discriminatory Gesture: A Psychoanalytic Consideration of Posttraumatic Reactions to Incidents of Racial Discrimination

This article provides a basic psychological conceptualization of racial trauma. It considers how seemingly minor instances of bias or discrimination can lead to posttraumatic reactions, the proportions of which can be hard to understand from the outside. I propose to describe this non-extraordinary event of racially biased treatment as the discriminatory gesture in order to emphasize its fluidity and pervasiveness as an interpersonal event. Being the subject of a discriminatory gesture represents a unique source of trauma, particularly because it derives its destructive power from its occurrence in a wider contemporary context of pervasive racism, white supremacy, and the historical context of slavery.     

Born and raised to be a fraudster

Although a great deal of research has focussed on and continues to focus on fraud prevention and detection, there is still no reliable way to predict who will become a white‐collar criminal/fraudster. Significant benefits would result if and when this can be done. This paper recognizes that there are many common characteristics that exist among fraudsters and investigates whether fraud can be predicted based on the psychological, sociological, and environmental state of children throughout their upbringing. Research shows that children with a negative childhood develop negative habits, emotions, and mentalities, including disorders that can linger well into their adult lives. These negative characteristics can ruin relationships and possibly even influence an individual to commit fraud. This paper provides initial evidence regarding the potential significance of some childhood characteristics that may contribute to the likelihood that someone will become a white‐collar criminal. Given that no other similar research exists, this paper may help guide future researchers who are also attempting to solve this complex problem.     

Between Recognition and Mis/Nonrecognition: Strategies of Negotiating and Performing Identities Among White Muslims in the United Kingdom

This article explores white British Muslim experiences of, and strategic performative responses to, the (mis/non)recognition of their seemingly incompatible religious and ethnic identities. Based on in-depth interviews (N = 26), it highlights how the different identity categories they hold relate to one another, influencing processes of perceived recognition in interactional contexts. White British Muslims perceive their ethnic and religious identities to be (mis/not) recognized in complex and contradictory ways. Their identities are affirmed, denied, erased, and/or incorrectly ascribed, sometimes simultaneously, by relevant others in different contexts. Performative strategies such as the adoption, maintenance, or removal of identity markers are used consciously and agentically in attempts to take back control over how their identities are (mis/not) recognized. At times deliberate performative acts leading to misrecognition are orchestrated by white Muslims themselves to not only minimize the risk of experiencing possible harm or marginalization but also to transgress and challenge norms. They also assert their multiple identities as a response to (mis/non)recognition and claims of their identities being incompatible, regardless of the repercussions that may result in them being placed at the margins of, or excluded from, their ingroups.     

Judgment and condemnation: How we love it!

The violence and death in Charlottesville on August 14, 2017 led to a national and even international barrage of condemnations of white supremacy along with condemnations of those who were slow to condemn. Why do we like to judge and condemn? And why do we do it with such passion and zeal? If the biblical gospel proclaims that we are justified before God by grace and not via self‐justification through condemnation, could we turn our attention more directly to those victimized by the conflict at hand? Specifically, could we listen to the voices of African Americans, Jews, America's Deep South, America's Southwest, and the disenfranchised white working class?