Race is psychoanalysis’s constitutive but disavowed foundation

Evidence

One of the main criticisms that can be leveled at this body of work is that it is highly normative. It posits an ideal typical racial, colonial, or postcolonial encounter with the Other, which is illustrated only indirectly, usually through the citation of literary texts or films, but in a way which bears only the flimsiest relation to the empirical complexities of real positions and practices within cultures of racism. Kristeva’s figures of The Exile or The Orphan are metaphorical constructions, not recognizable social beings. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1402

It has recently been suggested that in many respects race is the Unconscious of psychoanalysis, the constitutive but disavowed foundation of its project, yet its fatal blind spot. Certainly the special relationship between race and psychoanalysis must be understood in both historical and structural terms (Rustin, 1996). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1247

Categorization

• XREF: Sharpens a methodological dividing line this vault may need: psychoanalytic/poststructuralist race theory vs. the empirically grounded Omi-Winant formation approach. — connects to: Something intrinsic to psychoanalytic method generates misrecognition about race — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1264; Psychoanalytic accounts of racism displace rather than escape reductionism — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1297; Psychoanalytic theories of racism have often been reductive and themselves racist — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1297 (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Sharpens the definition of the race-psychoanalysis relationship as constitutive-disavowed-blind-spot.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1402; David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1247

Broader Connections

• Something intrinsic to psychoanalytic method generates misrecognition about race #expands (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1264
• Psychoanalytic theories of racism have often been reductive and themselves racist #qualifies (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1297
• Psychoanalytic accounts of racism displace rather than escape reductionism #qualifies (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1297
• Psychoanalysis repressed racism and colonialism to assimilate into host societies #complicates (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1255