You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
As you begin to listen to this plenary presentation, what about me do you take into account—me as scholar, as practicing analyst, as retired academic, as older, as female, as married, as Black? As I ponder these questions, I feel a mix of eager anticipation, wariness, lively intellectual curiosity, and a desire to convince you that what I have to say is important, not only to me, but for you, and for psychoanalysis. I hope to convince you that how our society treats and mistreats its nondominant members is deeply and importantly represented in how all of us live—in our daily lives, in our psyches, and in the psychoanalytic treatments we provide.
I, like many, have multiple cultural identities. A very important one for me, in terms of both my deepest satisfaction and my greatest challenge, is my identity as Black. The fact that I am on this stage talking to you reflects both—satisfaction and challenge. In part that satisfaction has to do with having mastered a particular form of success neurosis, of which I have been fortunate enough to analyze the sources, developmental, neurotic, and