Psychoanalysis, historical injury, and the language of castration: The murder of transgender women of color

Abstract

Why do transgender women of color’s attempts to deconstruct cisgenderness evoke a murderous reaction? I use the word “infection” to describe the death of transgender women of color because the murderous rage that is involved is like a disease, developing from a psychical infection that refuses containment. Working from Freud’s theory of infantile sexuality, I examine his theory of the death instinct – specifically, the working of the compulsion to repeat. I demonstrate that for Freud the compulsion to repeat is connected to the fulfilment of wishes, and I use this theoretical frame to illustrate that for people of color the time when the experience of racial subjugation was not consciously registered is only possible in dreams. I then engage with Melanie Klein’s theory of projective identification and link it to Freud’s dual instinct theory in order to offer an effective way to articulate that the murderous impulse is a normal part of the human psyche. I believe these theoretical offerings from Freud and Klein can help to prevent the murder of transgender women of color.