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The Work of Whiteness: A Psychoanalytic Perspective (Paperback)

The Work of Whiteness: A Psychoanalytic Perspective By Helen Morgan Cover Image
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Description


'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.

About the Author


Helen Morgan is a Jungian analytic training analyst and supervisor, and Fellow of the British Psychotherapy Foundation. Her background is in therapeutic communities with adolescents and in adult mental health. She was Chair of the British Association of Psychotherapists between 2003 and 2007, and Chair of the British Psychoanalytic Council between 2015 and 2018. She has published a number of papers, including several on racism.


Product Details
ISBN: 9780367218362
ISBN-10: 0367218364
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: May 31st, 2021
Pages: 148
Language: English