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Aboriginal Populations of the Mind – Race & Primitivty in Psychoanalysis
Author(s): Celia Brickman (Author)
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Publication Date: 15 July 2003
- Language: English
- Print length: 320 pages
- ISBN-10: 0231125828
- ISBN-13: 9780231125826
Book Description
What part does racial difference play in psychoanalysis? What can be learned when considering this question from a postcolonial perspective? In this subtle and commanding analysis, Celia Brickman explores how the colonialist racial discourse of late-nineteenth-century anthropology found its way into Freud’s work, where it came to play a covert but crucial role in his notions of subjectivity. Brickman argues that the common psychoanalytic concept of “primitivity” as an early stage of psychological development unavoidably carries with it implications of an anthropologically understood “primitivity,” which was conceived by Freud -and perhaps still is today -in colonialist and racial terms. She relates the racial subtext embedded in Freud’s thought to his representations of gender and religion and shows how this subtext forms part of the larger historicizing trend of the psychoanalytic project. Finally, she shows how colonialist traces have made their way into the blueprint for the clinical psychoanalytic relationship and points to contemporary trends in psychoanalysis that may make possible a disengagement from this legacy.
Editorial Reviews
Review
[Serves] as an imaginative blueprint for doing similar studies of race and psychiatric thought… In the way she conceptualizes this terrain, and in the observations she offers, she is certainly without parallel. — Andrew Fearnley Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences Brickman demonstrates an excellent understanding of the history of both anthropology and psychoanalysis. And she uses it deftly in a post-colonial deconstruction of Freud’s ideas. — William Wedenoja Religion Brickman has done psychoanalysis a powerful service here. — Stephen Frosh The Psychoanalytic Review Brickman has put together in a new way the often contradictory puzzle that we know as psychoanalysis… This book will change the way we read Freud. — Diane Jonte-Pace Religious Studies Review An intriguing study… highly original and intellectually exciting. — Gilbert Herdt, San Francisco State University One of the finest critical pieces on psychoanalysis that I have read… [an] important and beautifully written book. — Michael Oppenheim, Concordia University, Montreal Very useful, clear, and thorough… Brickman has provided a good compass for this moment of psychoanalysis in search of its future. — Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research
About the Author
Celia Brickman maintains multiple professional roles as an independent scholar, psychotherapist and teacher. She received her doctorate at the University of Chicago, and is currently the Director of Education at the Center for Religion and Psychotherapy of Chicago.
