26 October: Afro-pessimism and psychoanalysis
This is the latest in a series of seminars on Decolonising Psychoanalysis, organised by the Race and Culture Committee of the Guild of Psychotherapists. The series is intended to open up conversations about psychoanalysis by initiating Transatlantic Dialogues between academics and psychotherapists, bringing clinical responses to their academic decolonial work.
Derek Hook
with Maxine Dennis (respondent)
Saturday 26 October 2024
3:00pm - 5:00pm BST
Online seminar £12 - £24 Book here
Abstract - Derek Hook
Afro-pessimism is an emerging critical theory that identifies and conceptualizes the historical persistence of anti-Blackness in the USA and beyond. Afro-pessimism also engages with psychoanalytic ideas in a radical and thought-provoking way. In recent years, Lacanian theorists and clinicians have argued that Lacan’s notion of jouissance (the human dimension of libidinal intensity and arousal) offers us a rich psychoanalytic account of racism. And yet it might be with reference to Afro-pessimism that the concept receives its most pertinent and critically significant utilization. This talk will briefly introduce the theory of Afro-pessimism and the notion of racism-as-jouissance before highlighting a series of questions that this conceptualization poses both for social theories and important clinical concerns, such as the transference.
Speakers’ Biographies
Derek Hook is a Professor in Psychology and a clinical supervisor at Duquesne University. He is one of the editors (along with Calum Neill) of the Palgrave Lacan Series and of the four-volume Reading Lacan's Ecrits (with Calum Neill and Stijn Vanheule). Along with Sheldon George he edited the collection 'Lacan on Race'. He began his analytical training in London, at the Center for Freudian Analysis and Research. He is the author of 'Six Moments in Lacan' and he runs a YouTube channel with many lectures on Lacanian Psychoanalysis.
Maxine Dennis is a psychoanalyst, consultant clinical psychologist, who works with individuals, groups and organisations. She has also directed and staffed on numerous Group Relations Conferences . Her private practice is in South London. Maxine is involved in teaching, training and supervisory roles in both the UK and abroad. Her work involves a particular interest in the impact of racialisation, trauma and mental health across the lifespan. This is on a backdrop of extensive experience within the NHS where she undertook various head and departmental lead roles.
Bursary tickets
A limited number of bursary tickets are available on a pay-what-you-can basis to people who would not be able to attend the seminar without financial support. To apply for a bursary ticket please email ivan_talks@guildofpsychotherapists.org.uk. Thank you.
A recording will be available for ticket buyers for a month after the event
Image: The Million Man March in Washington, 1995. Downloaded from mauludSADIQ article Published in The Brothers Oct 23, 2017: https://medium.com/the-brothers/why-the-only-march-on-washington-thats-recognized-happened-50-years-ago-2f8e2483e0d4