A few years ago, a West African resident in my advanced psychotherapy course told me how fascinated she was by the psychoanalytic material that we were reading. I asked if she had considered analytic training. She retorted, “As a black woman from Africa, who in Milwaukee would ever come to see me for analysis?” Sadly, I realized that she had a point.
Shortly thereafter, I read that the NAACP had scheduled its national convention to be in Milwaukee July 2005. I thought a public forum on the psychology of racism timed to coincide with the NAACP convention could provide an opportunity for useful dialogue between psychoanalysts and the minority community. After considering many ideas about what could be accomplished with such a forum, I distilled my thoughts down to five talking points as I sounded out leaders in the black community about their ideas on a public dialogue. The talking points were as follows:
As experts in understanding the psychology of human behavior and feelings, psychoanalysts have much to contribute to studying the psychology of racism.
Minority populations are underserved by psychotherapists and psychoanalysts.
Minorities are underrepresented in our profession. APsaA is committed to increasing diversity among trainees.
As an organization, APsaA is seeking to redress the institutional racism that has pervaded the mental health profession.
Milwaukee is one of the most segregated urban areas in the country. We want to do our part to improve this unfortunate situation.
After exploring various contacts over the next year, I partnered with G. Communications, a marketing firm involved in event planning for the NAACP convention. With the help of G. Communications' CEO, Brandon Adams, a vision began to take shape. We planned a three-hour “Forum on the Psychology of Racism” for July 8, 2005, at the Milwaukee Art Museum. I was able to obtain funding from the American Psychoanalytic Foundation, the Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Foundation, the Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Society, and G. Communications. Three APsaA members, Paula Kliger from Detroit, Mark Smaller from Chicago, and Sandra Walker from Seattle, as well as a local psychotherapist on our foundation board, Quincy Tharps, agreed to be the forum panelists.
As an organization, APsaA is seeking to redress the institutional racism that has pervaded the mental health profession.
At the forum, Tharps set the stage by discussing sociocultural aspects of racism that affect all members of society, focusing on the unique racial picture of Milwaukee. In a presentation entitled “Race from the Inside Out,” Walker discussed the internalization of racism. Kliger focused on how racist attitudes are conveyed and passed on through mutual reciprocal exchanges between individuals in her paper, “Racism: It Takes Two—The View from Within.” Smaller provided an analytic perspective on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa and its relevance for our culture in his talk, “Reconciling the Truth about Racism in the U.S.: What Can We Learn from South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission?”
The presentations were followed by a spirited dialogue with the audience in a town hall meeting facilitated by Keith Murphy, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. The event was broadcast live on WMCS, a popular local urban radio station and was filmed by public TV. Over 150 people attended the forum. The audience was an ethnically and racially diverse cross-section of the community, including NAACP members, religious leaders, politicians, analysts, psychotherapists, educators, and other local residents interested in the topic. Audience members were enthusiastic, viewing the dialogue as a positive step in healing Milwaukee's racial divide.
Following the forum, there was a gallery walk through an exhibit on “Artists Interrogate Race and Identity,” with each panelist choosing a work of art to discuss in depth. The gallery walk offered an opportunity for a more intimate discussion on the psychology of racism.
The next day, at a special scientific meeting of the Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Society, Kliger, Tharps, and I facilitated a discussion of racial issues in the therapeutic setting using a film, The Color of Fear, as a catalyst. This film is a powerful exploration of racial attitudes among seven ethnically diverse men. The 30 people who attended the meeting found the discussion helpful in furthering their work with patients from different ethnic or racial backgrounds.
We are exploring ways to keep the momentum going. Local public TV plans to broadcast an edited version of the forum. Additionally, talks are underway for a possible national broadcast. We are also considering offering psychoanalytically informed diversity training and psychoanalytic discussions of movies and plays that have racial themes. Meanwhile, Tharps is networking with local religious leaders to continue this important dialogue. Next year, we plan to have another society meeting devoted to racial issues.
Jan Van Schaik, M.D., is a training and supervising analyst at the Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Institute and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin.