Whiteness: A Problem for Our Times

In Western cultures an assumption of ‘whiteness’ as the default position of the human means that the individual may fail to notice how their whiteness affects their sense of identity and patterns of social interaction. Research shows that awareness of racist structures is apparent from an early age, but the child born into a white liberal family seeking to understand what they observe of racialized power differentials is likely to meet a colour-blind response from significant adults which contradicts their experience. I suggest that, to manage this conflict between the reality of the racist thought and its denial, the vertical split of disavowal develops within the psyche. By way of illustration, a clinical example is offered of a white woman who brought troubling thoughts to her white therapist and I explore how the potential for collusive disavowal may work against the therapeutic task. I suggest that the tendency for psychoanalytic thinking to isolate the individual from social and political forces leaves us ill-equipped to work with racism as it arises in the consulting room and a more connected view of the human psyche as situated from the start within a political, economic and social setting is required.