By Gwen Bergner

Bergner, G. (1999). POLITICS AND PATHOLOGIES: on the subject of race in psychoanalysis. Frantz Fanon: Critical Perspectives.

The paper critiques the tendency to prioritize Frantz Fanon’s later work, particularly The Wretched of the Earth, over his earlier text, Black Skin, White Masks, arguing that this oversight neglects critical insights into the interconnection between political and psychological identities in the context of colonialism. It discusses how colonialism induces a crisis of identity and the importance of analyzing both political alienation and individual alienation. Additionally, the discourse surrounding race in psychoanalysis is explored, addressing the reluctance of African-American literary and cultural theories to incorporate psychoanalytic frameworks and the broader implications of poststructuralism on their scholarly methodologies, ultimately calling for a more integrated approach to understanding racial subjectivity.

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