This paper introduces the special issue on psychoanalysis and colonialism. As guest editors we also offer our own contribution to the topic. First, we connect the history of psychoanalysis with that of colonialism and distinguish concepts such as colonialism, coloniality, decolonization and decoloniality, as well as three perspectives on coloniality: Postcolonial theory, the decolonial turn, and the anticolonial struggle. Then we recapitulate psychoanalysis’s approaches to colonialism and coloniality, starting with Sigmund Freud’s ideas on primitivism, continuing with the psychoanalytic apologies for colonialism and delving into Freudian traces in the works of Oswald de Andrade, René Ménil, Wulf Sachs, Octave Mannoni, Frantz Fanon, Santiago Ramírez, Albert Memmi, Édouard Glissant, Ashis Nandy, Homi Bhabha, Edward Said, and current authors. Finally, we discuss colonial features, effects and uses of psychoanalysis, before moving on to summarize and comment on the articles included in this special issue.