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They speak in circles. They have thing [sic] they want to say, and they don't hear your questions [Edita Gadzo, a Tuzla woman who served as interpreter for the refugees from the massacre at Srebrenica, New York Times, July 17, 1995].
It seems that helping a child to recover from trauma is liable to involve the therapist not only in sharing the pain but in suffering grave doubts about whether facing pain so starkly is necessary, and whether the self-protection of turning a blind eye may be preferable [Juliet Hopkins (1986), cited by Valerie Sinason, 1990, p. 11].
Is there no place for Black self-love in this culture? We are in a strange historical moment in that Blackness is so openly commodified and simultaneously despised
I am grateful to have been asked to comment on Karnett and on this essay from a clinical viewpoint as an example of what understandings psychoanalysis might contribute. Massey places Karnett's speech unforgettably in the foreground with its telling hesitations, backings up on itself, flattened narrative, and dropped connections. Karnett explains and breaks off explanation; she qualifies or amplifies, though without signaling what she is doing (metacommunicating). She apologizes, blurts out things, seems to contradict herself, and stammers to a halt. She swings between efforts to speak out and “why bother”?
Massey uses Bakhtin to help her pay close attention to the to and fro of Karnett's speech, to hone in on Karnett's “many voices” and “conversation with her selves” as well as with the interviewer. To my mind, Massey uses Bakhtin as a good internal supervisor, teaching her to follow process (rather than content alone). But she is mistaken to contrast such attention to language with the concerns of contemporary