Over the past few years there has been an increasing interest in the use of psychoanalytic ideas within a sociological framework. These ideas have been largely developed within sociological theory rather than practice. There does, however, seem to be a new frame of thought and practice emerging which we could term psycho-social studies, perhaps even a new discipline in its own right. In this article I will discuss the development of the use of psychoanalytic ideas around sociological issues, explore some of the tensions that have arisen and evaluate the implications for methodological practice.

Theory and Practice: Psychoanalytic Sociology as Psycho-Social Studies

“Thinking about congruence implies [thinking] about difference…If there was no difference there would be no process and [therapeutic] progress.” Schmid, 2001p218

This study uses a hermeneutic phenomenological approach incorporating post-structuralist principles to explore ‘Black’ women therapists’ accounts of their lived experience of social differences (race and gender) in their clinical practice. It aims to provide rich descriptions of the women’s experiences, which are understood as grounded in wider socio-political processes and contexts. This methodological approach was adopted to acknowledge the socially constructed nature of race and gender and reduce the reification of these terms. It allows an explicit focus on the experiences of ’black’ female therapists in their clinical interactions with white male clients, including the extent where these social differences impact on therapists’ concepts of self and the developing therapeutic relationship with white male clients.
Ten ‘black’ women psychotherapists from different therapeutic orientations and working in a range of contexts were interviewed about their experiences of working with white male clients. Three distinct but interrelated narrative structures emerged as prominent across the participants' accounts: race and gender as markers of difference; relating through difference; and finding self beyond social division. The study found race and gender, as intersecting contextual factors, could influence therapists’ ‘self-states’ and meaning-constructions within the therapeutic relationship. For most participants, race-related issues were more present than gender-related ones; participants’ accounts underlined the prominence of the internal psychological challenges they experienced when engaging with racial issues in the therapeutic process. In contrast to identity developmental model, the findings suggest therapists' identification with these categories is better understood by the use of subjectivity and positionality, concepts derived from post-structuralist discourse. Such use highlights the shifting, fluid and temporal nature of these social processes.
Participants’ accounts suggested that self-reflexivity and relational forms of reflexivity allowed them to find ‘self’ in the context of race and gender differences with clients. Highlighting the significance of these factors for ‘black’ female therapists and the importance of addressing difference related to race and gender within training. The study concludes by making recommendations for the normalising and validation of therapists’ experiences in supervision and training, so that ‘black’ female therapists can be supported to find ‘self’ beyond the social divisions they may encounter in their practice.

‘Black women’ therapists' impressions of the social differences of ‘race’ and gender in the therapeutic process: a post-structuralist phenomenology narrative exploration

The University of ManchesterNatalie Dietrich JonesPhD Development Policy and ManagementThe ma(r)king of complex border geographies and their negotiation by undocumented migrants: The case of Barbados2013ABSTRACTUsing Barbados as a case study, this thesis examines the relationship between agency, undocumentedness and borders. The relationship between these three concepts has been debated in a well-established European and North American literature; however, there is no similar body of work for the Caribbean, a space which since its genesis has been shaped by b/ordering practices. Through a stratified view of the border, it explored the discursive and non-discursive (material) factors which constrained migrants? existence, and migrants? agentic response to these constraints.The timing of fieldwork meant that the location?s geography, as well as migrants? narratives, was marked by a recent amnesty exercise. In addition to ?talk? the research also relied on text, in the form of government and other legal documents relating to the management of migration. The research is therefore based on a combination of narrative and critical discourse analysis, espousing the methodological eclecticism that is encouraged in critical realist methodology. The study makes an important contribution to the field of border studies, based on its exploration of the relationship between a complex border ontology and migrant agency. The principal finding is that borders create complex geographies, which operate at varying spatial scales. The thesis thus provides an enhanced theorization of border(s), in particular as it relates to conceptualizations of space, suspect status, governmentality, and agency.

The ma(r)king of complex border geographies and their negotiation by undocumented migrants: The case of Barbados

This article examines the century-long pairing of international wars followed by periods of resurgent interest in group psychotherapy and community-based treatment. It then focuses on the evolution of group and community treatment models, drawing on the work of Sigmund Freud, Trigant Burrow, Wilfred Bion, S. H. Foulkes, and Eric Berne to explore and illustrate the societal functions and difficulties of living and working in groups. The author offers his personal reflections on working with groups and concludes with a discussion of how group analytic models can extend the traditional models of transactional analysis group treatment to enhance the capacity of members to work with conflict, difference, and unconscious projections.

In Conflict and Community: A Century of Turbulence Working and Living in Groups

This paper discusses two approaches to racism in the psychoanalytic literature—one based on Kleinian object-relations, and another based on Lacan’s theory of language as central to subjectivity. It is argued that the Kleinian method relies on drawing parallels between object-relations at the psychological level and social relations in the external world, and this limits its understanding to a narrow catalogue of psychoanalytic concepts. A Lacanian/post-Lacanian approach begins from the structure of cultural narratives and is more sensitive to social variations. Using examples from anthropology, it is argued that both theories are crucial for a robust analysis of racism.

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Michel Sanchez-Cardenas

Papers

“ Race, Colour and the Process of Racialization. New Perspectives from Group Analysis, Psychoanalysis and Sociology ” de Farhad Dalal

« La pudeur, un lieu de liberté » de Monique Selz

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis 89, 4 (2008)

International Journal of Psychoanalysis 1 et 2, 2022

International Journal of Psychoanalysis, nos 5 et 6, 2012