PSYCHOANALYTIC ESSENTIALS · SELF-STUDY
White Liberal Guilt and Racism: Explorations Using a Kleinian Framework
On demand · Online self-study · 5 CE credits · $89 (including transaction fees)
Program Description
This Psychoanalytic Essentials self-study, distance learning course is offered to provide an opportunity for licensed psychologists and other mental health clinicians to read and reflect about white liberal guilt and racism through the lens of psychoanalytic theory. While white people are situated as the subjects of the readings and discussion, White, White-adjacent, and BIPOC licensed mental health professionals may be interested in this course.
The course will utilize a series of papers from the journal Psychoanalytic Dialogues (2020). We will begin with reading and discussing the first paper by Jane Caflisch, PhD, “When Reparation is Felt to Be Impossible: Persecutory Guilt and Breakdowns in Thinking and Dialogue About Race.” At the time of publication, Caflisch was a candidate in the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, where she was a member of the Committee for Ethnicity, Race, Culture, Class and Language (CERCCL). She has crafted a paper that “tackles the dilemma of living into and inspecting with honesty the effects of white liberal guilt” (Swartz, 2020). She utilizes Klein’s concepts of persecutory and depressive guilt as a framework for thinking about and feeling into the impossibility as well as the possibility of repair regarding the violence of racism at the personal and collective levels. Her paper is centered on whiteness, written from the perspective of a white woman in New York, and addressed explicitly to “well-meaning, liberal white people” in an effort to engage in deep and critical self-examination regarding racism.
Learners will also read and reflect on the three responses to Caflisch, papers that galvanize the conversation about white guilt and racism. The authors of these responses bring rich and diverse viewpoints based on their professional and personal vantage points.
Discussion Articles
When Reparation Is Impossible: A Discussion of “When Reparation Is Felt to Be Impossible: Persecutory Guilt and Breakdowns in Thinking and Dialogue about Race” — Kali Cyrus, M.D., M.P.H. In her own words, she “brings the perspective of someone socialized as Black, queer, androgynous, invisible disabled, woman, and first-generation doctor raised by parents from the South.” She is a psychiatrist in clinical practice as well as a consultant offering services to individuals and organizations around issues of race, identity, medical practice, public health, and conflict stemming from differences.
A Discussion of “When Reparation Is Felt to Be Impossible: Persecutory Guilt and Breakdowns in Thinking and Dialogue about Race” — M. Fakhry Davids, M.Sc. (Clin Psych), who self-identifies as a man of Indonesian descent who grew up in apartheid South Africa and then immigrated to Britain to train as a psychoanalyst. He has developed a model of “internal racism” that explores racism and difference from a psychoanalytic perspective.
Giving In, Giving Up, and Being Blown to Smithereens: A Discussion of “When Reparation Is Felt to Be Impossible: Persecutory Guilt and Breakdowns in Thinking and Dialogue about Race” — Sally Swartz, Ph.D., who self-identifies as a white woman from South Africa. She is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and professor with a particular interest in the fields of colonialism and decolonization in psychoanalytic theory.
Learners will also read and discuss Caflisch’s response to the three discussion papers, Who Are “We” – At the Limits of Rupture and Repair: Reply to Cyrus, Davids, and Swartz.
Participants will read the papers and view a 25-minute recorded video lecture in which Dr. Kunst presents an overview and her distillation of the readings. Upon completion of the course materials, learners will complete a post-test. A minimum score of 80% is required on the post-test in order to receive the continuing education credit certificate. Upon completion of the post-test, a course evaluation form and continuing education credit certificate will be emailed to each learner.
Learning Objectives
- Differentiate between persecutory guilt and depressive guilt through the lens of Kleinian psychoanalytic theory (Caflisch).
- Describe how white liberal guilt—manifested through self-idealization (“this is not who we are”) and self-reproach (“this is all that we are”)—serves to deflect attention away from the harmed other and undermines genuine reparative action (Caflisch).
- Articulate how grounding reparative efforts in everyday contexts (“the ordinary”) can overcome paralysis associated with persecutory guilt and facilitate more authentic, reparative engagement (Caflisch).
- Name the underlying factors that make reparation impossible (Cyrus).
- Define melancholic guilt (as opposed to persecutory and depressive guilt) and analyze how melancholic guilt acts as a deeper obstacle to reparation in racist mind-sets (Davids).
- Identify potential pitfalls that emerge in efforts to pursue ‘ordinary’ reparation in everyday interactions (Swartz).
Target Audience
This activity is designed for psychologists and other licensed mental health professionals who have an interest in psychoanalytic or psychodynamic psychotherapy. The level of the course is intermediate to advanced.
Instructor
Jennifer Kunst, PhD is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Pasadena, CA where she works with adults, adolescents, couples, and families. She earned her PhD at Fuller Graduate School of Psychology and is licensed in the state of California. Dr. Kunst trained at the Psychoanalytic Center of California, where she is a Training and Supervising Analyst and teaches courses on Kleinian theory and technique. She is passionate about distilling the complexity of psychoanalysis into ideas that can be applied to everyday life. She has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed professional psychology journals on the topics of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and the interface between religion and psychology. Her outreach projects include her Psychology Today blog, “A Headshrinker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, and her book, “Wisdom from the Couch: Knowing and Growing Yourself from the Inside Out” (Central Recovery Press, 2014).
Registration, Cancellation & Disclosures
Cost: $89, including online transaction fees. Cancellation: There will be a $10 cancellation fee for cancellation after purchase.
The planners and presenters for this activity have not received commercial support for this activity nor are there any relevant financial relationships between the sponsors, presenters, program content, research, grants or other funding that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest.
Jennifer Kunst, PhD is approved by the California Psychological Association to provide continuing professional education for psychologists. The California Board of Behavioral Sciences accepts continuing education credit granted by the California Psychological Association or by any of its Approved Providers. Jennifer Kunst, PhD maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
If you plan to use the credits in another state please check with that licensing jurisdiction to see if the credits will be accepted.
