Getting to Where We Need to Get: A Meaningful Step Towards Understanding and Remedying White Privilege

Abstract

ABSTRACT Anen’s paper adeptly uses a racial lens to psychoanalytically examine an important but neglected aspect of racism, namely how white privilege is deeply rooted in narcissistic states of mind. The white psyche and corollaries such as having whiteness as a psychological condition are a current focus of psychoanalytic writers. Anen’s approach adds significantly to this burgeoning inquiry by adapting additional psychoanalytic tools to the inquiry. He ably stretches established and familiar theories of narcissism, shame, internalization, and capacity for aloneness to interrogate white privilege. His additional perspectives give the analytic thinker more adequate scaffolding to hold the tensions of exploring the polarizing topic of white privilege. The openness of Anen’s inquiries and his highly illuminating case example also make room for additional questions such as whether the tools he offers adequately address the underlying hatred of racism and one of its weapons, namely, white privilege.