We are really pleased to have had so many people join us for our conference on White Privilege, Racism and Psychoanalysis at the weekend and want to thank our speakers for their rich and varied presentations and everyone involved for the generosity of their participation. To call the discussions “lively” would be an understatement. We’ve had really great feedback so far and are thinking about ways to build on the experience to enrich our training and our work. Watch this space.
We are pleased to announce a series of talks and films on Zoom exploring what it means to be In Relation with each other. The programme starts on Saturday 19 June and runs for seven weeks on either Wednesday nights or Saturday afternoons.
• Week one: Saturday 19 June, 2-4pm
Laura Chernaik: Having something, having nothing, and standing in relation
• Week two: Saturday 26 June, 2-4pm
Angela Kreeger: In conversation
• Week three: Wednesday 30 June, 6.30-8.30pm
Nick Blackburn: The bomb that will bring us together – on psychoanalytic writing
• Week four: Saturday 10 July, 2-4pm
Shalini Masih: Under the banyan tree – psychoanalytic engagement with an indigenous healing site
• Week five: Wednesday 14 July, 6.30-8.30pm
Jane Haynes and Jutta Laing: In conversation. The breath of life – celebrating our mortality
• Week six: Wednesday 21 July, 6.30-8.30pm
Niya B: Ekdysis. Film and talk
• Week seven: Wednesday 28 July, 6.30-8.30pm
Luisa Pretolani Bloom: They’re looking at you … LOOK BACK! Film and talk
Tickets can be bought individually (£10-20) or as a package (£60-120). Discounts are on offer for Site members and trainees, and members of the international community. Selected sessions will be available as recordings.
Our offer of free supervision and therapy to key workers was very successful. We are now offering affordable, low cost therapy and supervision. For low cost reflective supervision, please contact TheSiteforContemporaryPsy@gmail.com
If you are affected more broadly by the Covid-19 pandemic and are considering psychotherapy, please contact us via our Clinic, email SiteClinic@yahoo.com or phone 07765 007295 or via contact details on Member and Trainee webpages.
The mental health effects on Black Americans of the more than 300 police killings of Black people in their country each year, at least a quarter of whom were unarmed, were the subject of a study in The Lancet in June 2018.
One member has drawn our attention to Nix and Lozada’s critical review of this study, which found 93 of its incidents to be misclassified, and questions the decision to headline The Site’s statement with this source. Beginning with a large number potentially obscures the individual too: these were people with names.
In March 2019, after a call by his father requesting police to perform a ‘mental health wellness check’, 29-year-old Osaze Osagie was shot and killed in his own home in Pennsylvania: an account of his life in the media mentions ‘autism, paranoid schizophrenia, extreme anxiety and Asperger’s syndrome’. Some members feel uncomfortable with these words, as stigmatising in themselves.
In October, 2016, Deborah Danner was killed in her home in the Bronx by a New York police sergeant, who claimed she was acting erratically. She was 66 years old. On January 28, 2012, she had written a six page essay entitled ‘Living with Schizophrenia’ (https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3146953/Living-With-Schizophrenia-by-Deborah-Danner.pdf) which begins: ‘Any chronic illness is a curse. Schizophrenia is no different—its only “saving grace”, if you will, is that as far as I know it’s not a fatal disease’.
Deborah Danner’s essay contains a definition of stigma from the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
a archaic : a scar left by a hot iron : BRAND b : a mark of shame or discredit: STAIN <bore the stigma of madness (mental illness)> c : an identifying mark or
characteristic; specifically: a specific diagnostic sign of a disease.
She writes: ‘I’ve included the definition of stigma in this essay because those who practice it should be reminded of what it means and, conversely, the damage it does to those it is directed at’.
The Site for Contemporary Psychoanalysis requires its members to abide by a Code of Ethics, which contains the following clauses:
2.2.1 A member accepts that a personal prejudice they knowingly hold about the patient’s gender, age, colour, race, disability, sexuality, social, economic or immigration status, lifestyle, religious or cultural beliefs is likely to have an adverse effect on the way they relate to the patient or to colleagues and others. 2.2.2 A member shall actively consider the area of diversities and equalities as part of their continuing process of self-enquiry and professional development.
The Site stands with Black people, and we affirm in particular our responsibilities as psychoanalysts concerned with mental health. We acknowledge links between American cases of police brutality and the death of Kingsley Burrell who died in detention under the Mental Health Act in March 2011, after being restrained by police at a hospital in Birmingham, UK. We condemn the killings of Osaze Osagie and Deborah Danner and the killing of George Floyd on 25 May 2020, and of Rashan Charles, Gareth Myatt and Jimmy Mubenga in our own country, as violent acts which are the consequence of systemic racism. One member has advocated powerfully for how this statement has overlooked by its emphasis on the US all the incidents happening every day in the UK.
Furthermore we recognise that there is a need to challenge and confront racism in the life of our own organisation: our management, clinic, trainings and events, and strongly to examine how our policies and procedures contribute to structural racism in the communities in which we work, including psychoanalysis more broadly, so that changes can be made. We also stand with the UKCP’s statement on racial injustice, which can be accessed here: https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/ukcp-news/midweek-mindset/ukcp-statement-racial-injustice/ .
Site Council
26 June, 2020
Site Members and Trainees are offering free or low cost therapy or reflective supervision to NHS workers, care workers, and key workers. Contact: email SiteClinic@yahoo.com or phone 07765 007295
Also, if you are affected more broadly by the Covid-19 pandemic and are considering psychotherapy, please contact us via our Clinic, email SiteClinic@yahoo.com or phone 07765 007295 or via contact details on Member and Trainee webpages.
