From the Editors

In a post to the American Psychoanalytic Association Members list-serve (12/26/2019), Dorothy Holmes wrote, “For me, the most attractive aspect of our discipline is that we are a radical, progressive profession that seeks liberation from bondage.” With this powerful invocation, Holmes invites us to consider the many ways that psychoanalysis has been exclusionary and has discouraged participation by many groups. Psychoanalysts have held misguided and at times harmful views of racial diversity, sexual orientation, and gender identity. We dedicate this issue of JAPA Review of Books to inquiry into the nature of racism and caste, white fragility, and fears of the “not-me.”

We are pleased to introduce this theme with Leon Hoffman's “The Evolution of Racism in the Western World: Addressing Fear of the Other.” Hoffman sets out to explore the developmental, historical, and current-day roles of racism in this country. He asks, “Do whites fear that their place at the head of the table is threatened by nonwhites, who will become the majority in the U.S. as early as 2045?” Hoffman recognizes that psychoanalysis—“developed within a liberal culture that assumed white supremacy, with the standard being the white individual”—fails to adequately understand and integrate into analytic practice Black lived experience; to discuss racism among ourselves and with our patients; and to recognize and confront our own racism. Hoffman's essay also examines the origins, pervasiveness, and relentless persistence of racism in our culture at large. He draws on several books, including White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism , by the education professor and diversity consultant Robin DiAngelo; three volumes by the philosopher Charles Mills, including Black Rights / White Wrongs: The Critique of Racial Liberalism ; Martha Nussbaum's The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis ;