Racial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation: On the Social and Psychic Lives of Asian Americans

by David L. Eng, Shinhee Han

In Racial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation critic David L. Eng and psychotherapist Shinhee Han draw on case histories from the mid-1990s to the present to explore the social and psychic predicaments of Asian American young adults from Generation X to Generation Y. Combining critical race theory with several strands of psychoanalytic thought, they develop the concepts of racial melancholia and racial dissociation to investigate changing processes of loss associated with immigration, displacement, diaspora, and assimilation. These case studies of first- and second-generation Asian Americans deal with a range of difficulties, from depression, suicide, and the politics of coming out to broader issues of the model minority stereotype, transnational adoption, parachute children, colorblind discourses in the United States, and the rise of Asia under globalization. Throughout, Eng and Han link psychoanalysis to larger structural and historical phenomena, illuminating how the study of psychic processes of individuals can inform investigations of race, sexuality, and immigration while creating a more sustained conversation about the social lives of Asian Americans and Asians in the diaspora.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Race, Asian American, Psychoanalysis, Sociology, Theory

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

David L. Eng is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania and also a member of the Asian American Studies Program.

Reviews

[Cheuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book draws on many well-regarded sources of thought from both the psychoanalytic and critical race theory worlds for a much needed collaboration about the inner lives of Gen X and Millennial (primarily East) Asian Americans. My own background being from critical theory, I appreciated the (often dense) language around psychoanalysis this book gives to the heavily misunderstood social status of Asians in the U.S as racialized subjects in racialized history. Their call to action for stronger ethnic studies programs resounds with particular force as someone who has witnessed and felt the power of identity formation through ethnic studies, as Asian Americans are too often disconnected from an Asian or American lineage to trace their roots back through. The authors don't mince words as they make their indictments of capitalism: "Under the shadows of neoliberalism and globalization, they teach us that race as relation, sex as relation, are increasingly impossible in a multicultural and colorblind age. They are lost, they are dissociated, there is no relation. That is the problem."

I would say that this book does more for psychology than it does for critical race theory due to the imbalance between the two in conversation. Although the authors bring up the question of who's allowed to (im)migrate at all, the systemic consequences of the model minority myth aren't made explicit enough in my opinion. In particular, there is some kind of gap left in the discussion as the case studies and the book overall is lacking in class analysis. E.g., it was disappointing to see Christopher use yoga as a way to return to the finance world. And what of the Asian Americans who don't aspire to whiteness and reject capitalist accumulation? I'll also add that I don't necessarily see myself and the Asians I grew up around (working class, SE Asians, Pacific Island folks, West Coast Asians, etc.) represented in this book -- but the case studies were compelling for their intended purpose as examples for the discussion the authors are holding. The thoughts around LGTBQ identity and queer liberalism felt like a bit of an add-in as well in that I couldn't make sense of the "'gay' panic" bits, and also only features two cis gay men from wealthy backgrounds.

Overall, I would recommend this book to (East) Asian Americans for the common language and psychoanalytic awareness to discuss our positionality in Western countries. I give it 5 stars knowing that this is merely the beginning of this conversation, and that the authors likely don't intend for this to be the whole conversation.

[Sanjida · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this calming and helpful. It's not for everyone, and it is annoyingly repetitive, but if you're an immigrant, migrant, and especially if you're Asian, I hope you read it and find it helpful too. Also, I'm going to make my therapist read this 😛

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

would like to own hard copy

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really big words on a topic that I feel like I need to be more conscious about. That's what ran through my head as I was introduced to this 'book'. As a second generation Asian Australia with a podcast speaking on these topics I could not help but vote it in as something of interest.

This reads like a thesis paper.

Before bookclub, I had complained that this was an extremely tough book to start and read. The complex language and psychology jargon was a very real barrier I had to overcome. I had only finished half the text, before our discussion session.

This had some really interesting stories which is what drew me back into it, and also because I needed to finish 1 more book, hours before 01/01/2021...

Although, I could not relate directly to the stories of parachute children which I found to be the most interesting, the overarching concepts of Asians and model minorities as the "answers" to the minority problem really struck a cord.

I think I will need another read, to fully understand the ideas presented here. But on a first pass, you can feel colour returning to your vision and you can start to see and observe what has been blind to you for the longest time about many of those people who you have dismissed time and time again.

Important literature.

[Mits]

One of those books that I'm choosing not to rate, because I think I mostly didn't understand it. I purchased this book after listening to a Code Switch podcast episode that interviewed one of the authors (https://www.npr.org/transcripts/79836...). I was deeply affected by the podcast and what Dr. Eng had to say. However, this book often went way over my head, due to my unfamiliarity with psychoanalysis and psychology. This book is written like a research paper, and is targeted towards others in the field of psychoanalysis. There were glimmers here and there that I found very interesting, but I was completely perplexed by some of the psychoanalytic concepts, not just because of the vocabulary but because some concepts are utterly bizarre to outsiders (or maybe are just bizarre). I would advise most people to listen to the podcast and skip the book.

[S*****]

If you want to read the original version of this argument, just read Butler’s introduction to Gender Trouble where she applies Freud’s ideas of mourning and melancholy to gender (first). Less groundbreaking than it aspires to be. Neither Eng nor Han are bad writers but their claim that white people have “melancholia” is absurd and wants to be neater than it actually is.

[Jennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy fuque I’m doneeeeeee tried to start during winter break and a few times during spring sem but unfortunately was a bit distracted by the messy consequences of failing to process issues that make much (MUCH) more sense now that I have read … brilliant and so glad I did !! Feeling: seen

[Teresa Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars!
Spent a day thinking about how this book has changed my life since reading it & I can honestly say thatRacial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation: On the Social and Psychic Lives of Asian Americans has become my new bible. Growing up, I've never thought about my identity in relation to my mental instability. Not to say that I'd grown up (diagnosed) with any chronic mental illness, but that I had never considered how deeply linked my psyche was to my experiences as an Asian American woman. David L. Eng & Shinhee Han beautifully bridges the gaps between psychoanalysis and racialized identities, specifically the Asian American experience, and answers a lot of questions that I've wondered about myself and my community for years.

Truly an excellent read! I'm only giving it 4 stars, however, because I would've appreciated more case studies or a more expansive/ in-depth unpacking of all Asian American experiences. (With the structure of case studies followed by analysis, it felt as if the analysis were only applicable to the case study being discussed.)

[Nini · Rating 4 out of 5]

We need more literature and writing on mental health on the axes of not just intergenerational histories but of the nation and racialized histories of the nation. As an Asian American, it really helped me start probing the intersections of psychoanalysis and racialized identities.

That being said, I definitely only understood like 60-70% of the book. The other 30-40% was steeped in such academic psychoanalytical jargon that I just have no clue about, so that was a bit hard to process. I had found out about the book because the authors were interviewed on NPR’s Code Switch podcast, so I thought it would be an accessible read but the book was far from it.

Additionally, as some of the other reviewers have commented, the analysis the authors provided was so tightly hinged to the few case studies they provided that it just did not feel in depth for a general audience. The case studies were heavily based on East Asian folks, with only one out of the six examples being an Indian international student. Having any writing on the Asian American racial psyche is important, but it leaves so much to be said about the diversity of Asian Americans and the differences in our racialization.

If I ever privilege myself to read and understand fundamental psychology, I will definitely read this again to gain a better appreciation for the book.

[Alison Tam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Challenging book to read - many concepts regarding psychoanalysis and critical race theory that I had to learn on my own (especially the Freudian theory). However, the case studies were quite interesting, especially in how they relate to racial melancholia in Gen X and racial dissociation in Gen Y.

My major takeaway of this book was beautifully written in a New Yorker article by Hua Hsu:
“Identity isn’t a prescriptive solution. But when you’re uncertain of your place within society, it can help to have ready-made categories or narratives, even if you choose to reject them. There’s a power in being able to recognize our struggles as the result of paradoxes we live within rather than seeing them as purely private failings. It’s a step toward imagining lives that we might be the authors of, with endings that we write ourselves.”

[J.S. Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m glad this book was written and that these analyses are occurring. As a transracial Korean adoptee, it was nice to see TRAs included in these studies. There’s plenty of thought-provoking and interesting ideas throughout. Yet as much as identity and Asian diaspora psychology interests me, I found myself struggling to pick the book up and read to the end. I find that academics tend to write for academic readership, which can be limiting. I’d love to see more accessible writing on these under-examined topics because the wider the audience reached, the greater we all benefit by a better understanding of ourselves and each other.

[el · Rating 2 out of 5]

"We instead focus on the melancholic's absolute refusal to relinquish the racial other—to forfeit alterity—at any costs...Racial melancholia thus delineates one psychic process in which the loved object is so overwhelmingly important to and beloved by the ego that the ego is willing to preserve it even at the cost of its own self...This preservation of the threatened racial object might be seen, then, as a type of ethical hold on the part of the melancholic ego. The mourner, in contrast, has no such ethics...Ambivalence, rage, and anger are the internalized refractions of an institutionalized system of whiteness as property bent on the exclusion and obliteration of the racial object. If the loved object is not going to live out there, the melancholic emphatically avers, then it is going to live here inside of me." (62-3)

"We have consistently investigated psychoanalysis not only as a theory of intergenerational family dynamics and the intergenerational transmission of trauma but also as a critical tool for interpreting the historical forces of the social and cultural order that shape and form racial subjectivity. To the extent that psychoanalysis functions as a hermeneutic for analyzing how subjectivity is constituted through the internalization of social norms and ideals, it also emphasizes that no subject develops as a simple repetition of these norms and ideals either. In their repetition, psychic prohibitions and taboos continually misfire and go awry...In the gap between the ideal and its (distorted) repetition lies the kernel of social change and transformation." (156)

[Iris (Yi Youn) Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt an intense emotional catharsis from reading this book. Part clinician-based psychoanalysis text, part critical race theory, part a literary thesis, this book opened my eyes to a new way of examining my own Asian American racial identity as existing in a pathologized and repressed state within the context of a long state-sponsored political history of exclusion from whiteness as property. It put coherent names and concepts to my many seemingly unexplainable neuroses over the years that I had previous difficulty encapsulating into reasons for my struggles with mental health. Most importantly, it described a perpetual sense of mourning within the Asian American national consciousness — racial melancholia, a feeling of knowing you have lost something but not being able to name what you have lost — that captured so many of the melancholic emotions I feel towards this country, my birth country, and my identity bridging both.

[Jae Choi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sprawling yet laser-focused on interrogating the relation between what they call "the subject of racial history" (by way of psychoanalytic theory) and the "history of the racial subject" (by way of critical race theory), Eng and Han explore are race as relation, the evolution of whiteness into a form of property, and the history of Asian American social exclusion. Their insights focus on the US. I liked that right from the beginning, they lay important groundwork - discussions of the model minority myth and its role in racial triangulation, the Chinese exclusion act and other laws, and theories of race and racialization. They formulate yearning for racial belonging as melancholia without end vis-à-vis Freud, a condition in which Asian Americans "know not what was lost in them." This is opposed to mourning, in which lost objects and all aspects of this loss are conscious. I also liked their discussion of Williams' theory of "Structures of feeling" as one potential way out.

[V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other reviews have mentioned the problem in the writing style of being full of jargon, too acadenic, and, I would add, sadly, myopically not cognizant of how important this topic is to Asians living in other cultures. If the writers ever do another edition, they should completely rewrite it so that the language is simpler, plainer and more everday. It is very good, very important material in the discussion of race and deserves to be accessible to all who are interested.

[YBV]

Just wanted to say that Hua Hsu's review sold it to me: https://www.newyorker.com/books/under...

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not the audience for this book. The language reads highly academic and I'm not an academic so reading it felt like being a part of an ongoing conversation that I could only partly understand.

There are interesting ideas in the book. The title reflects its thesis that the Asian-American experience leads to a collective sense of melancholy and for some, dissociation, a sense of belonging nowhere and having no grounding. It explores through 4 sets of case studies. Melancholy is looked at through 2nd generation high achievers and adoptees raised by Caucasian parents. Dissociation is looked at through 1st generation parachute children (sent abroad, alone, for education at an early age) and then a pair of gay parachute children.

Like I said, it's not a book for me. The case studies are by far the most interesting part, but curiously, they're a fraction of the book, most of which is discussion of theory. This is always a problem with case studies but the intro hints at there being larger trends (e.g. higher rates of depression among Asian-Americans) and I wish the book did more to connect these stories to larger trends.

More fundamentally, the book is strongly grounded in a couple things - critical race theory and Freudian psychoanalysis. The intro declares itself an exploration of the intersection of those ideas. I think CRT has interesting things to offer but there are large parts of it I find not compelling. As for Freud... I'm not a fan at all. So that the book is based on these ideas made it a tough read. In particular, the book's notion of melancholy is based entirely on Freud's conception of melancholy as unresolved loss. I just don't resonate with that - for me melancholy is much more about longing than loss.

Which gets to a more fundamental issue for me - I just don't identify with these stories. They all make sense to me, and I can appreciate them. But it's not my experience at all.

[Michael Sasson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me this was a challenging (and rewarding) book to read. It explores the suffering of young adult Asian Americans (or recent Asian immigrants in the US). It is rooted in expertise in both Asian American fiction and psychoanalytic theory. It both challenges the Black-white binary and situates the lives of Asian American college students in relationship to that binary. Although immigration and its effects on young adults is paid serious attention to, previous experience of Latino or European immigrants much less the experiences of immigrants from Asia who did not end up in elite US universities are pointed seldom if at all. African and African American theorists of race and colonialism are pointed to regularly but anti-colonial thinkers in the Arab world, Latin America and Asia ... Race is used as the primary prism when sometimes it is unclear if nation or immigration status might not serve as well or better. The role of some Asian Americans as inhabiting middle roles in the economy is referenced but experiences of Chinese communities elsewhere in Asia is not mentioned nor is the similar historic economic role of Jews in Europe discussed (in fact, the label Judeo-Christian is used when Christian hegemony in the US is clearly being ponted to). There are interesting questions raised about changing conditions as significant capital accumulation transforms international relationships (I think China, Korea and India are specifically pointed to but in other moments Singapore, etc.).
Similarly, the essay on the experience of international adoptees was grounded in significant clinical experience but no articles or books written by adult transracial or transnational adoptees seems to have been referenced.

[Daniel Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

While their prose can be unnecessarily pleonastic, Han and Eng present case studies and social framings of Asian American identity that are incredibly thought provoking and moving. The connections between immigrants, their children, and parachute children are thoroughly explored and psychoanalysis of the factors that lead to grief in the “third space” model minority Asian Americans occupy is comprehensive and easy to follow. The citation of only a handful of psychoanalytic theories (e.g. Freud is cited for practically every analysis) speaks to a small breadth of research from psychology, but the authors acknowledge in the epilogue that the book is a pilot study into getting comfortable with the headspace of processing Asian American trauma in a therapeutical setting. In this mission, the book succeeds overwhelmingly. With a bit of snazzy editing and a deeper exploration of each patient + the theories being applied to their cases, this would be a standout reference guide to the horrifically understudied and underaddressed mental health issues of Asian Americans in white America. The concept of whiteness as property really stuck with me and allowed me to rethink my relationship + idolization of white superiors and peers, which I think has been really helpful for understanding my identity as well as how others view me, either as a holistic singularity of my identity or a cheap imitation of whichever roles have been decided for me.

[Yujin Han · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - the authors are drawing on important and relevant ideas and theories from academia, but I found the writing to be unnecessarily complicated and largely inaccessible. I could not bring myself to get through the introduction alone and so skipped directly to the second chapter on transracial adoption. They use one case study of an adopted Korean to further expand on the idea of racial melancholia as well as denote specific considerations for the theories used in the book as they relate to transnational, transracial adoption. I question in which ways they could have continued to draw more on the theories referenced if using more than one case study - since the experience of transracial, transnational adoption is not singular. That being said, to have an entire chapter dedicated to the psycho-social challenges of transracial adoption is rare and remarkable.

[Ethan Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is structured around different clinical cases. Sometimes the 'analysis' is a reconstructing of psychoanalytic theory, and the theory often appears distinct from the described clinical cases. In this way, this book could have functioned as a theoretical text rather than a series of case studies. This sometimes was frustrating. However, the interweaving of social processes and psychoanalytic concepts is indispensable. It is clear that they have developed a style of thought; repeating the phrase 'good-enough' - extrapolated from Melanie Klein's work - to refer to economic transformations and analytic styles, they seek to de-string psychoanalysis from problems of the individual psyche. Although some clinical cases are completely overshadowed, their analytic approach is very exciting.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for a book club, and felt totally out of my depth here, but resonated a lot with a number of aspects of what they wrote about. I feel lucky that I’ve been going through my own psychodynamic / psychoanalytic based therapy journey with an amaaaazing therapist, and could at least relate to some of the dense psychoanalytic jargon on a somatic/experience level, even if I didn’t get all of the academic psychological theory. It was very validating to see some of the experiences I’ve had reflected in this book, and gave me new respect for psychology as a field.

Not sure what reading this book would be like without a strong psych background or experience might be like, though.

Might write more later.

[Eleanor Kallo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book did remind me that I don't actually like psychanalytics, which strikes me as paternalistic most of the time and occasionally utterly absurd. However, this book was absolutely phenomenal, differences in psychological modality aside. It is broken into four chapters centering on second generation Asian immigrants, transracial Asian American adoption, parachute Asian Americans, and gay parachute Asian Americans - of which I particularly loved the second and last. It is a very dense book that I do hope I can return to during my graduate schooling, because I don't think I was able to get everything out of it on this one read through. That said, it gave me a ton to think about and for that I'm grateful!

[Jo-Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, this was not written in any way for the average person. It is clearly for psychology students.

Second, the topic itself is very important when talking about identity (in this case focusing on Asian Americans). It is applicable to anyone who is not "part of the dominate culture, race, etc". I do recommend this book as the case studies are interesting and the topic itself is very relatable.

However, if you're the average person like me, a lot of it goes way over my head. So I just skimmed past anything that was too specific to the field of psychology.

I hope the authors will consider writting a morr accessible version, so everyone can understand.

[Brian Zhou · Rating 5 out of 5]

the most life changing / foundational / important book I've ever read. cannot emphasize enough how much this book has shaped my views and even my academic writing in college. this is the go to book I'd recommend anybody (especially Asian Americans) to read if they want to have a better understanding of how immigration, racial consciousness, and mental health all connect.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super necessary and insightful framing for understanding Asian American mental health. It’s dense and references a lot of legal and psychoanalytic theory I was not familiar with, but you don’t need any of that to still get a lot out of reading this.

[Vinay Khosla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the connections to colorblindness especially in chapter 3 felt tenuous/undertheorized. Overall though totally shifted my view of certain theory as being partially inadequate w/o psychoanalysis + the clinic as a space

[Eric Crockett · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book to be positively impenetrable. It rests like a graduate-level textbook. While I liked the concept, the point was mixed in with lots of Freudian nonsense that served to discredit the book. While I think the topic is admirable, I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.

[Juicey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for everyone going into psychoanalysis. Each case presented walks through how psychoanalytic interpretation can be applied to populations other than white. I think this kind of content was just what I was looking for in my graduate studies and lectures.

[Adrianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely intriguing and nuanced take on how the social environment of Asian Americans affects their psyche, and in turn, how their affected psyche determines how they behave in their environment. It articulates so many of my own thoughts and feelings regarding my role in Western culture.