Colonization Of Psychic Space: A Psychoanalytic Social Theory Of Oppression

by Kelly Oliver

Oliver (philosophy, Vanderbilt U.) does not attempt to apply psychoanalysis to oppression. Rather she transforms psychoanalytic concepts such as alienation, melancholy, and shame into social concepts by developing a psychoanalytic theory based on a notion of the individual or psyche that is thoroughly social. The psyche and the social world are so

Genres: Philosophy, Psychology, Nonfiction, Theory

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Kelly Oliver is the award-winning, bestselling author of four mysteries series:
Jessica James Mysteries (contemporary suspense), Pet Detective Mysteries (middle grade), Fiona Figg Mysteries (historical cozies), and The Detection Club Mysteries (traditional).

When she’s not writing mysteries, Kelly is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University.

Kelly lives in Nashville with three very demanding felines.

To learn more about Kelly and her books, please visit her website at www.kellyoliverbooks.com.

Reviews

[Dr. Breeze Harper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated that Kelly Oliver attempts to bring in how racist colonialism negatively affects the psyche of racialized minorities...and how classical psychoanalaysis never looks into this at all. She attempts to fill this gap.

However, I found the book a little repetitive and found myself struggling with the fact that she needed to confine her analysis to using white Eurocentric philosophers and psychoanalysts (with the exception of Fanon and a brief usage of Julia Alvarez) to explain to classical psychoanalysts how the psyche is affected by racism.

I guess I was struggling because I am a black identified female, born and raised in the USA, and I felt like she wasn't really teaching me anything new. Not her fault, as my focus is also in critical race theory and the "black" female experience in the USA. I don't rely on psychoanalysis that much because it ignores so much of how the racist colonial project has greatly hurt the collective demographic of "black" people in the USA. I just felt "disconnected" from trying to understand my own pain and hurt from racism when she would use Freud, Hegel, Kant, Lacan, Kristeva and Derrida to try to explain my psyche to me. The style of writing and the use of these particular people (who are socially located in the privileged racial space of whiteness and socio-economic class privilege) just don't feel "sincere" to me. However, I know she must use these classical theorists so she can be taken "seriously" by her classical psychoanalytic peers who would probably only "believe" the credentials of white Eurocentric philosophers and psychoanalysts. It's a complicated thing to do in her field and I appreciate her trying to work within these limited boundaries. However, its gets me asking the question, "If she's limited to using authors who are socially located in 'white privileged' locations, can this really be helpful in trying to get classical psychoanalysts to understand how emotionally painful racist colonialism of the psychic space of say, the collective black female population in the USA, is??" Can the masters tools dismantle the master's house?

Or, is the language she is using something that I am unable to connect to but is "easily" accessible to classical psychoanalysts (who continue to be largely white middle classed privileged people in the USA) whose consciousness is shaped differently than mine because of their racialization as "white" and because of their classical psychoanalytical training? My consciousness comes from black female racialized-sexualized consciousness and 'academic' training in critical race theory, black female studies, and postcolonial feminisms in which the "authors" I read are largely marginalized women of color who have entirely different embodied experiences than Hegel, Freud, Kant, Lacan, etc, and use language that is very accessible (for me at least) and non-convoluted.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow -- fantastic book!

It combines philosophy, sociology, and psychology to inquire into how we become oppressed internally. . . and how we rise above it, as well.

Just started it, but I'm loving it. I just hope I don't get super depressed when I read it.

What I like about it is its exactness. This author is precise! I love that.

And, when I was finishing up my undergraduate career in philosophy, I had started to combine sociology and philosophy. Since then, I've studied psychology, so this book is the intersection of many interests I have.

Another thing that I find compelling is that the author is also fascinated at what Foucault would call the technologies of the self that allow us to transcend oppression. So, we'll see!

[The Awdude · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working mostly through Kristeva and Fanon, Oliver develops a psychoanalytic theory of oppression to argue that the fundamental characteristic of subjectivity is not alienation but the capacity to forgive. She takes issue with the Freudian/Lacanian/Hegelian notion of subjectivity that equates being human with the violent entry into the world of language, and instead she argues that this entry presupposes the capacity to forgive oneself for one's singularity; in other words, to be human is to be allowed to signify one's pre-human (aka Kristeva's semiotic) drives to other humans. The colonization of psychic space operates by denying this capacity to forgive to a particular group's subject position: racism, sexism, colonialism, etc. restrict sublimation to the inheritors of the law and infect the minority, the woman, and the colonized with their unwanted affect and shame. Oliver argues that any social theory must take into account the unconscious, the excess of signification, and furthermore we must take responsibility for it; otherwise, there can be no recognition of otherness in the self. It's a flawed book for sure, but it tackles a lot of difficult questions and raises some important points. Recommended.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books gives a fantastic explanation of the psychological affects (and effects) of oppression - both racial and gender. A dense, but great read. I particularly recommend the chapters on gender.