DISCUSS HOW FANNON USES PSYCHOANALYSIS TO UNDERSTAND NATURE OF RACISM. USE
PSYCHOANALYTIC CONCEPTS TO ILLUSTRATE WHETHER YOU AGREE
Fannon use combination of concepts = Marxism, psychoanalysis, existentialism
o To generate critique of relations of power existing in racist & colonial environments
Use Eurocentric notions = “oppressive”, “racist”, “colonial”
o To assist argument about one dominant social political group
Strategically uses psychological & psychoanalytic terms in analysis to a great political effect
Rejects aggressive imposition of western culture, values & norms
Psychoanalysis projects European cultural values onto colonial context to hide oppression
Fannon found evidence of victim-blaming
o Colonisations attempts to self-justify forms of explanation
Reject Hegel‟s slave-master dialectic = involve participation of both in struggle for recognition
Doesn‟t completely reject Marxist ideas = express concern to how it applies to colonial contexts
Assesses racism by defining opposing categories = “blackness” vs. “whiteness” & “African culture”
vs. “European culture”
o Main idea of his work = Eurocentric theories must be re-evaluated & reformulated to be
sufficient in colonial contexts
o Stress how racism, colonial violence & exploitation replaced Eurocentric theoretical analysis
First world contexts can‟t properly address power forms specific to colonial/postcolonial situations
o Danger of systems = risk homogenising terms that define colonial environment
Fanon applies subliminal double standards in how black/white subjects are understood/evaluated
Manichean thinking considers how
o Racial implementation rationalises notions of difference, superiority & inferiority
Colonial space division impacts constructed notions of psychological, cultural & moral difference
Colonial world is divided into two compartments
o Two components are opposed but not in service of a higher unity
o Both zones obey rules of pure Aristotelian logic & follow principle of reciprocal exclusivity
Fannon‟s critical psychology described as direction of „psychopolitics‟ that politicises psych
o Approach social power/politics issue via critical use of psychological (psychoanalytic) vocabulary
Importantly revisits psychoanalysis domain to provide interpretation of psychodynamics of racism
o Wary not to reduce racism to intra-psychic/to naturalise it
His investigation ties his psychological analysis at each point = towards real socio-political &
historical circumstances of colonial domination
By adapting the theoretical notion of neurosis into racial neurosis
o He succeeds in providing powerful account of damaging impact of “white psychology”
Able to critically/analytically portray severity of impact = upon identity & psyche of racist politics on
the Black subject
He writes from perspective of colonised subject
He is a subject with direct experience of racism & developed natural/intense hatred of racism
In my opinion:
o Fanon can argue for new humanism & recognition of himself (& all) as equally human without
necessarily arguing against race consciousness
PSYCHOANALYTIC CONCEPTS TO ILLUSTRATE WHETHER YOU AGREE
Fannon use combination of concepts = Marxism, psychoanalysis, existentialism
o To generate critique of relations of power existing in racist & colonial environments
Use Eurocentric notions = “oppressive”, “racist”, “colonial”
o To assist argument about one dominant social political group
Strategically uses psychological & psychoanalytic terms in analysis to a great political effect
Rejects aggressive imposition of western culture, values & norms
Psychoanalysis projects European cultural values onto colonial context to hide oppression
Fannon found evidence of victim-blaming
o Colonisations attempts to self-justify forms of explanation
Reject Hegel‟s slave-master dialectic = involve participation of both in struggle for recognition
Doesn‟t completely reject Marxist ideas = express concern to how it applies to colonial contexts
Assesses racism by defining opposing categories = “blackness” vs. “whiteness” & “African culture”
vs. “European culture”
o Main idea of his work = Eurocentric theories must be re-evaluated & reformulated to be
sufficient in colonial contexts
o Stress how racism, colonial violence & exploitation replaced Eurocentric theoretical analysis
First world contexts can‟t properly address power forms specific to colonial/postcolonial situations
o Danger of systems = risk homogenising terms that define colonial environment
Fanon applies subliminal double standards in how black/white subjects are understood/evaluated
Manichean thinking considers how
o Racial implementation rationalises notions of difference, superiority & inferiority
Colonial space division impacts constructed notions of psychological, cultural & moral difference
Colonial world is divided into two compartments
o Two components are opposed but not in service of a higher unity
o Both zones obey rules of pure Aristotelian logic & follow principle of reciprocal exclusivity
Fannon‟s critical psychology described as direction of „psychopolitics‟ that politicises psych
o Approach social power/politics issue via critical use of psychological (psychoanalytic) vocabulary
Importantly revisits psychoanalysis domain to provide interpretation of psychodynamics of racism
o Wary not to reduce racism to intra-psychic/to naturalise it
His investigation ties his psychological analysis at each point = towards real socio-political &
historical circumstances of colonial domination
By adapting the theoretical notion of neurosis into racial neurosis
o He succeeds in providing powerful account of damaging impact of “white psychology”
Able to critically/analytically portray severity of impact = upon identity & psyche of racist politics on
the Black subject
He writes from perspective of colonised subject
He is a subject with direct experience of racism & developed natural/intense hatred of racism
In my opinion:
o Fanon can argue for new humanism & recognition of himself (& all) as equally human without
necessarily arguing against race consciousness
