A Fresh Beginning to an Old Conversation: Thoughts on Leon Hoffman’s “We Don’t Trust YOU: Reflections on Anti-Racism in Psychoanalysis”

Abstract

This article attempts to explore Leon Hoffman’s (this issue) basic concerns: That greater polarization and the erosion of epistemic trust has occurred among our psychoanalytic colleagues as positions on “Whiteness as the pathogenic agent of our social ills has created a good deal of animosity that has interfered with the goals of examining structural racism in psychoanalysis, as in the rest of society.” The article promotes the idea that more traditional psychoanalytic approaches to having the most difficult conversations among psychoanalysts do not and will not work when related to racism, historical and systemic trauma, and power. It is not just about our mental health deficiencies and characterological disturbances. I am interested in exploring our overall human development, which is manifested in our current human condition, where the past shows up in the present while we are all on this complex human journey. In my view, creating trust, “epistemic trust” (Hoffman, this issue) requires something different: an ability to find and hold onto, in the moment, a frame with steps toward relational and shared resonance, requiring a group process that includes attention to self-study, which is the self-analytic reflective function that is shared during a dialogic group experiential discussion. This kind of process is deliberately created like a Winnicott-style transitional space of “being with” in conversation, with its own relational ground rules, involving one or more different others. Unlike the psychoanalytic dyad where the patient provides the stories and associations for exploration, this model for discovery involves setting a tone and an atmosphere for colleagues to share together each other’s associations, stories, and lived experiences with the goal of expanding consciousness, integrating the individual and social within, seeing more, and acquiring deeper emotional readiness and resonance with the different other or others.