Abstract
This essay draws on the theories of Melanie Klein and others in the British object relations school to explore the psychological dynamics of the slavery reparations debate in Africa, Britain, and the USA. Kleinian psychology emphasizes the ability to make reparation as an indicator of psychic maturity and argues for the importance of symbolism and creativity in the reparative gesture. At the same time, it situates the inability to make or accept reparation in the psychically immature stage known as the “paranoid-schizoid position.” This essay applies Kleinian theory to the concept of “the transgenerational phantom” developed by Nicholas Abraham and Maria Torok, and interrogates Klein's limitations through the critiques of C. Fred Alford, who argues for a leap from merely symbolic to practical reparation. In exploring the Kleinian concepts of legitimate reparation, mock reparation, and manic defence, the essay aims to establish illuminating connections between individual and public psychology in relation to one of the most emotionally and morally charged areas of debate in the Atlantic world.
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