Psychopathology I: Neurotic-Level Character and Symptom Disorders

Second Year Adult Psychoanalytic Training (APT)
2022-23, 3rd Trimester — Fridays, 1:45-3:15pm
Michael Pauly, MD
Kelly Lippman, LMHC

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May 5, 2023 — The Cumulative Trauma of Racism

Presenter: Kelly Lippman, LMHC

[40 pages]

Holmes invites the reader to think about internalized racism and classism as toxic introjects that impede or otherwise compromise success in individuals, leading to success neurosis and impaired self-esteem. Links can be made with to Khan’s paper in respect to the impossibility of a maternal protective shield sufficient enough to protect the developing person from the projections within the average expectable environment of a racist society.

Hamer challenges the old notion of race as a mere symbol of deeper intrapsychic material and asks the reader to think fluidly about the myriad possible meanings of race in the treatment relationship. This requires a much more thorough consideration of the realities of race than is custom of traditional psychoanalysis and most white clinicians.

Holmes, D.E. (2006). The Wrecking Effects of Race and Social Class on Self and Success. Psychoanal. Quarterly., 75(1):215-235

Hamer, F. M. (2002). Guards at the gate: Race, resistance, and psychic reality. In Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 50, pp. 1219-1237