Bringing Racial Truths to Light

The history of psychoanalysis and racial study

Dr. Beverly Stoute, M.D., and Michael Slevin, M.S.W. ’08, worked for two years on a series of eight articles about race and psychoanalysis for The American Psychoanalyst (TAP). The series stimulated such discussion that they used it as the base for a co-edited book on the subject, Race in the Therapeutic Encounter.

Stoute and Slevin share a conviction that a psychoanalytic understanding of and engagement with racism could help both patients and our society. “The history of psychoanalysis and race is stained with ignorance, misapprehension and, yes, racist theory and practice. However, from that dark past it is emerging,” they write.

On June 11 they shared their perspective with the SSW community in a talk detailing the importance and transformative potential of dealing with racism in a clinical psychoanalytic environment. “Psychoanalysis doesn’t just happen in the consulting room,” Slevin said. It has implications and uses “in one’s traditional social work endeavors, and in the sort of social-services Jane Addams world. One of our premises is that it’s relevant in both places.”

The presenters framed the discussion on the developmental evolution of race awareness from childhood to adulthood with their own clinical examples, as well as eliciting and exploring examples from the audience. Attendees were given the opportunity to explore how issues around race emerge in their consultation rooms, and how they can be addressed.

Slevin described the talk as “emotionally rich,” and found the students “attentive, riveting and respectful at every step of the way—which is a real gift for a presenter.”