"I Do Not Have a Racist Bone in My Body": Psychoanalytic Perspectives on What is Lost and Not Mourned in Our Culture's Persistent Racism

Racism is a disavowed marauding presence in the white psyche, a pathological formation that weakens psychic structures and creates a vulnerability to acting out that is hateful, discombobulated, and destructive. Examining it in its cultural, historical, and clinical contexts can enable its conscious ownership and mastery, which entails a process of mourning. Because racism is carried widely in the cultural surround and individually, it must be addressed by psychoanalysts. Cases are presented to show that racism is accessible to analysis in the consulting room.