Fridays @CCP
Sheldon George, PhD
(Boston, MA)
Friday, April 12, 2024
Trauma and the Making of Black Identity in Contemporary America
7-9pm: (CST): ZOOM Presentation & Discussion
RECORDING WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE
About the presentation: In a historical moment when the news media has repeatedly displayed the wanton killing of black men, the connection between African American identity and trauma seems especially salient. Sheldon George’s talk will work through Lacanian psychoanalytic notions of subjectivity to ground an understanding of African American identity as mediated by social trauma. It will address, in particular, the 2012 Florida shooting of 17-year old Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn, a white male whose excessive response to the loud rap music played by Davis and his friends demonstrates a Lacanian understanding of jouissance, or the other’s mode of enjoyment, as a root source of notions of racial alterity. The talk will discuss how this jouissance, bound to fantasies of race, often structures both racism and African American identity around acts of violence and trauma, inducing African Americans to embrace willfully the very racial identities against which this violence is directed.
Sheldon George is Chair of the department of Literature & Writing at Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts. His scholarship centers on application of cultural and literary theory to analyses of American and African American literature and culture. George is chair of the Executive Committee of the MLA forum Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Literature. He is an associate editor of Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society and has coedited two special issues of that journal: one titled “Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Interventions into Culture and Politics” and the other titled “African Americans and Inequality.” His book Trauma and Race, published in 2016, is the first to offer an extended Lacanian analysis of African American identity. George is coeditor, with Jean Wyatt, of Reading Contemporary Black British and African American Women Writers; and his recent publications include the pioneering collection of essays, coedited with Derek Hook, Lacan and Race: Racism, Identity and Psychoanalytic Theory.
Learning objectives
Participants will be able to understand the role of otherness in Lacanian theory
Participants will be able to apply key Lacanian concepts like Aggressivity, Extimacy and Jouissance to a psychoanalytic understanding of race and racism
The presentation will be introductory and will require only basis orientation with psychoanalytic theory.
Fees
CCP members: free with annual $195 membership, payable at registration.
Students:free with annual $175 membership, payable at registration.
Fellows: free with annual $175 membership, payable at registration.
Non-CCP members, single admission: $50
Continuing Education
This program is sponsored for Continuing Education Credits by the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. There is no commercial support for this program, nor are there any relationships between the continuing education sponsor, presenting organization, presenter, program content, research, grants or other funding that could be construed as conflicts of interest. Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. If the program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods. The Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis maintains responsibility for this program and its content. CCP is licensed by the state of Illinois to sponsor continuing education credits for Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Social Workers, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors, Licensed Professional Counselors, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy Counselors and Licensed Clinical Psychologists (license no. 159.000941 and 268.000020 and 168.000238 Illinois Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation).
Professionals holding the aforementioned credentials will receive 2.0 continuing education credits (satisfies 2 hours toward DEI) for attending the entire program. .To receive these credits a completed evaluation form must be turned in at the end of the presentation and licensed psychologists and Licensed Clinical Social Workers must first complete a brief exam on the subject matter. No continuing education credit will be given for attending part of the presentation. Refunds for CE credit after the program begins will not be honored. If a participant has special needs or concerns about the program, s/he/they should contact Toula Kourliouros Kalven by April 11, 2024 at: tkalven@ccpsa.org
References/Suggested Readings
1. George, Sheldon. Trauma and Race: A Lacanian Analysis of African-American Identity. Texas: Baylor UP, 2016.
2. Laurent, Eric. “Racism 2.0.” Lacan Quotidien 371: 1–6 (2014).
3. Hook, Derek. “Racism and jouissance: Evaluating the ‘racism as (the theft of) enjoyment’ hypothesis.” Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. Special Issue on “Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Interventions in Culture and Politics.” Sept. 2018, Vol. 23, Issue 3.
4.Stephens, Michelle. “Skin, stain and lamella: Fanon, Lacan, and inter-racializing the gaze.” Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. Special Issue on “Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Interventions in Culture and Politics.” Sept. 2018, Vol. 23, Issue 3.
Reference
5. Swales, Stephanie. “Transphobia in the bathroom: Sexual difference, alterity and jouissance.” Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. Special Issue on “Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Interventions in Culture and Politics.” Sept. 2018, Vol. 23, Issue 3.
Presented by
The Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis/CCP Program Committee: Toula Kourliouros Kalven, Alan Levy, PhD, Zak Mucha, LCSW
The Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis is an IRS 501(C)(3) charitable organization, and expenses may be tax deductible to the extent allowed by law and your personal tax situation.
