Intersectionality and Psychoanalysis

Misogyny, homophobia, and racism permeate every aspect of U.S. life: from housing, education, health care, and the criminal justice system, to romantic relationships and friendships. No private, public, or professional space is exempt. Daily, millions of Americans experience systemic oppression and interpersonal slights. And those who are underprivileged or marginalized in more than one way—by virtue of being Black and female, poor and disabled, LGBTQ and Muslim, for example—are the most vulnerable. Aggression, invalidation, and insults (big and small, overt and subtle) undermine self-esteem, curtail ambition, stifle creativity, and take a toll on physical and mental health. As a result, many people seek psychotherapy to help them resist and/or cope with oppression.

Because psychoanalysis focuses on both collective and individual trauma, it is uniquely positioned to address the effects of prejudice and discrimination. In our psychoanalytic work with marginalized patients, we need to explore their struggles through the combined lens of race, gender, and sexuality. We must keep in mind that homophobia, racism, and misogyny often operate in tandem, rather than separately. This special section of Contemporary Psychoanalysis is a companion to Intersectionality and Relational Psychoanalysis: New Perspectives on Race, Gender, and Sexuality (Routledge, 2020), recently published in Donnel Stern's Psychoanalysis in a New Key book series. In that edited volume, Neil Altman, Max Belkin, Sue Grand, Adrienne Harris, Lynne Layton, Julie Leavitt, Hannah Pocock, Avgi Saketopoulou, Pratyusha Tummala-Narra, and Cleonie White examine the lives of immigrants, women of color, and LGBTQ individuals from the dual perspective of intersectionality and psychoanalysis.

The articles that follow articulate different ways in which psychoanalysts use the notion of intersectionality. Drawing on Black feminism and the writings of Toni Morrison, Michelle Stephens examines the intersection of race and g