To:
The BPSI Community and Friends
From:
BPSI Leadership Team
Jack Foehl, PhD, President
Catherine Kimble, MD, Executive Director
Holly Housman, LICSW, Chair, Board of Trustees
Donna Fromberg, PsyD, President-Elect
Carole A. Nathan, MBA, Managing Director
Date:
September 20, 2022
Re:
BPSI READS:
Open Conversations on Race, Equity, Diversity, and Otherness
Tuesday, October 11th - 7:30-8:30 pm
With Guest: Usha Tummala-Narra, PhD
“BPSI READS” is an initiative to facilitate regular conversations within BPSI, the larger psychoanalytic community, and the public on issues of Race, Equity, Diversity, and Otherness. Thank you to everyone who has participated thus far. We invite you and your guests to please join us for the next BPSI READS:
Special Guest: Usha Tummala-Narra, PhD
Tuesday, October 11th, 2022
7:30-8:30 pm
 
Reading: Can We Decolonize Psychoanalytic
Theory and Practice?
Tummala-Narra, Pratyusha (2022) Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 32:3, 217-234. 
“The impact of cultural assumptions of psychoanalysis, which are consciously and unconsciously absorbed and yet unintegrated by nonwhite people and communities, cannot be overstated.”  -- Usha Tummala-Narra.
 
Theorizing about the unconscious has been largely based on white, Euro-American notions of the primitive, dismissing the perspectives of nonwhite people and contributing to individual and collective injustice. Importantly, foundational conceptualizations of human development, such as those regarding the concept of dependency, have been shaped through white, Euro-American colonization. Dr. Tummala-Narra’s paper addresses the complicity of psychoanalysis in colonized narratives of development and the psyche, and the impact of this complicity on racial minorities. She explores post-colonial perspectives that challenge theoretical assumptions of nonwhite people as dependent and inferior, and examines the process of decolonization in psychoanalysis, through recommendations for modifying existing theory, practice, and training. 

Dr. Tumamala-Narra’s paper invites us to meaningfully engage with the intrapsychic, interpersonal, and structural consequences of colonization in psychoanalytic theory and practice, on the impact of structural racism on the psyche, and to consider the power of change: She writes: “Psychoanalysis can be a critical tool in gaining insight into the impact of colonialism, even as the colonial assumptions within psychoanalysis pose challenges to efforts in decolonizing our formulations and interventions”.   

In this BPSIREADS evening, we look forward to open conversation with Dr. Tummala-Narra around the ideas in her paper, and to deepening the dialogue about Race, Equity, and Diversity in psychoanalysis.

Usha Tummala-Narra, PhD, is the Director of Community-Based Education at the Albert and Jessie Danielsen Institute and Research Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. Her research and scholarship focus on immigration, trauma, race, and culturally informed psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Dr. Tummala-Narra serves on the Holmes Commission on Racial Equality of the American Psychoanalytic Association and on the Board of Directors for Division 45 of the American Psychological Association. She is an Associate Editor of the Asian American Journal of Psychology, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, and Senior Psychotherapy Editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology. She is the author of Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy (2016), and editor of  Trauma and Racial Minority Immigrants: Turmoil, Uncertainty, and Resistance (2021). She is also in independent practice, working primarily with survivors of trauma from diverse sociocultural backgrounds.

We are honored that Dr. Tummala-Narra will be our guest - Please join us.

This BPSIREADS is open to the public.
We invite members of the BPSI Community, friends, and all members of the larger community to join in conversation on October 11.
Please feel free to forward this invitation.
 There is no required fee.
Please contribute at any level you choose to help support
this evening's BPSIREADS.
As part of BPSI’s Anti-Racism Commitment, (Click here for Commitment Memo), we have also created the BPSI Resources  web page, that intends to make readily available psychoanalytic and interdisciplinary scholarship resources on Race, Equity, Diversity and Otherness, for colleagues and the public. The site is updated regularly with more readings and resources. Please see what is new:  BPSI Resources  - On Race, Equity, Diversity, and Otherness; Psychoanalytic and Interdisciplinary Voices (linked here).
 
Thank you, to all who have shared your experiences, questions, and ideas for how BPSI can fulfill our commitment to Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We welcome your ideas for future BPSI READS, BPSI RESOURCES, and your feedback, contributions, and participation in BPSI’s ongoing work. You may contribute ideas here.

We hope to see you at this BPSI READS evening.

Jack, Catherine, Holly, Donna, and Carole