“BPSI READS” is an initiative to facilitate regular conversations within BPSI, the larger psychoanalytic community, and the public on issues of Race, Diversity, and Otherness.
Thank you to everyone who has participated in BPSI READS thus far. Please join us for the next BPSI READS:
Tuesday, April 6, 2021
7:00-8:00 pm
Special Guest: Celia Brickman, PhD
Reading: Celia Brickman (2018): Race in Psychoanalysis:
Aboriginal Populations in the Mind
Introduction and Chapter one: “The Figure of the Primitive: A Brief Genealogy”
In Race in Psychoanalysis, Celia Brickman investigates the racial assumptions implicit in psychoanalysis through an analysis of the concept of primitivity. Freud saw primitivity as a universal feature of the psyche of all humankind. But he also continued to use primitivity in its now-outdated anthropological sense to indicate the lower evolutionary rung supposedly occupied by peoples of color. This ambiguity of the term primitivity – the psychological and the anthropological - meant that Freud’s work quietly perpetuated, while overtly dismantling, its racist implications. This ambiguity allows a racial subtext to linger in psychoanalysis to this day.
For this first (of two) evenings, we’ll read the Introduction and the first chapter of the book. The Introduction lays out the argument of the book, while the first chapter traces the contexts in which Europe’s raced others came to be understood as representatives of the European past, furnishing the basis for theories of “the primitive mind.” These theories fed into the colonial anthropology of the latter half of the nineteenth century, which provided Freud with the foundations of his social thought, eventually making their way into his theories of mind as well.
Celia Brickman, Ph.D., is an adjunct faculty member at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, clinical associate faculty at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis, and practices psychotherapy at the Center for Religion & Psychotherapy of Chicago, where she is scholar-in- residence. She is the author of Race in Psychoanalysis: Aboriginal Populations in the Mind (Routledge, 2018), the first edition of which was nominated for the Gradiva Award for Historical, Cultural and Literary Analysis in psychoanalysis. She received her PhD from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School and has published and presented papers on issues concerning psychoanalysis, race and religion.
We are pleased that Celia will lead our conversation on April 6th - Please join us.
This BPSI READS Drop-in group is for members of the BPSI Community,
and all interested guests.
One tap mobile: +16465588656,,92055319983#
Dial by your location: +1 646 558 8656; Meeting ID: 920 5531 9983
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SAVE THE DATE!
Upcoming BPSIREADS
Monday, May 17th – Celia Brickman PhD
“Race in Psychoanalysis: Aboriginal Populations in the Mind” – Part 2
June date tbd – Kim Leary, PhD
As part of BPSI’s Anti-Racism Commitment (Click here for Commitment Memo), the BPSI Resources Web Page intends to make readily available psychoanalytic and interdisciplinary scholarship resources on, Race, Diversity and Otherness, for colleagues and the public. The site is regularly updated with new readings and links suggested by colleagues and the public – click below!
BPSI Resources:
On Race, Diversity, and Otherness
Psychoanalytic and Interdisciplinary Voices
Thank you to everyone who has shared experiences, questions, and ideas for how BPSI can fulfill our commitment to Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We welcome your feedback and input, and contributions to BPSI’s new and ongoing initiatives. You may contribute ideas here.
We hope to see you for the next BPSI READS.
Jim, Catherine, Dan, Jack, and Carole
