The Scientific Development Committee have collated a collection of literature relevant for psychoanalytic thinking about race and diversity. We hope that this will be of interest to members, as well as friends of the ACP and other professionals working with children and young people.
Anthony Anaxagorou: 'After the Formalities' 2019
‘After the Formalities’ is an emotionally transformative and razor-sharp exploration of ideas of division and dominance, incorporating history, science and philosophy alongside autobiographical narratives to examine how race, class and masculinity is shaped in contemporary Britain. The author of this breakthrough collection of poems is described as 'a vastly accomplished, unconventional, selfless poet'.
Eugene Ellis: 'The Race Conversation: An Essential Guide to Creating Life-Changing Dialogue'. Confer Books, 2021
The author is the founder and director or the Black, African and Asian Therapy network. His book tackles the challenge of talking about racism with candour and courage. He focuses on the impact of racism on the body, on how the race construct and its traumas are held in the bodies of people of colour and white people, exploring the possibility of conversations which address the social injustice of racism despite and beyond silence, denial, anger and hate.
Narendra Keval: 'Racist States of Mind: Understanding the Perversion of Curiosity and Concern'. Routledge, 2016
Psychoanalyst Narendra Keval explores the ways particular states of mind can obstruct the desire to learn and acquire knowledge about ourselves in relation to others in the world and how this discovery can be obstructed by a retreat into racist thinking which aims to put the brakes on psychic growth and development. He brings clarity and depth to a topic easily bogged down in hatred or political correctness and his sensitivity and compassionate exploration counteracts the malignancy of racism.
Helen Morgan (BPF): 'The Work of Whiteness: A Psychoanalytic Perspective' Routledge, 2021
The author is a Jungian psychoanalyst – starting from the idea of whiteness as an under-examined notion which distorts humanity, she brings a challenging and thoughtful psychoanalytic perspective to the phenomenon of white privilege and the defences inherent in ‘white fragility’ in society and in psychoanalysis. She argues for the inclusion of social and political influences into psychoanalysis. She brings hope to the challenge of racism.
David Olusoga: 'Black and British: A Forgotten History' Picador, 2021
The author is a British-Nigerian historian and film-maker – he tells the rich and revealing story of the long relationship between the British Isles and the Caribbean, going back to Roman Britain and coming forward to encompass the Windrush scandal and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. Woven into the cultural and economic histories of the nation , black history can no longer be separated and marginalised
Claudia Rankine: 'Citizen: An American Lyric' Penguin, 2014
This ‘genre-bending meditation’ on race, racism and citizenship in twenty first century USA is a collection of prose, poetry and images which paint a provocative portrait of the African-American experience in the ‘so called’ post-racial United States.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder: 'Ali: Fear Eats the Soul' 1974
This powerfully, disturbing and moving film describes an unexpected relationship between an isolated, older German woman and a young Tunisian immigrant in Germany. In so doing it explores the depth of prejudice towards the immigrant population and the social oppression of marginalised individuals. Hailed then as a masterpiece and still as compelling now.