Another paper that was accepted for publication and that we would like to acknowledge is ‘Doing Anthropology in the Consulting Room’ – a paper based on the joint presentation by Christina Moutsou and Salma Siddique at the conference. Christina Moutsou became unwell and died in December 2023, and although they were unable to complete the writing process of the paper, we would like to share some of their words which felt significant in the editing process of the issue: ‘Death has been at the forefront of our mind much more concretely than before as well as the possibility of imminent breakdown and loss. In more than one way, the realisation that we are all vulnerable as we are all human has hit home.’ Salma shares some memories of Christina in a tribute below.

Bringing all these papers together into Sitegeist issue 16 was also a deconstructive and reflective exercise for our editorial team. Questions of race and racism touched on personal chords and promoted lively discussion in our editorial meetings, challenging the zeitgeist of Sitegeist – questioning the whiteness of our editorial board, the rigidity of our academic language, and trying to bring a diversity of voices into this issue, as well as future ones. The articles gathered in this issue point out different ways in which psychoanalysis is undoubtedly saturated with whiteness and racism, as well as other forms of marginalisation. Yet they all use psychoanalytic tools in their explorations, calling forth Audrey Lorde’s famous quote questioning whether the master’s tools can dismantle the master’s house: ‘The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house’, she writes, ‘they may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change’ (2018: 19). That is to say, there is always more work to be done.

Yael Pilowsky Bankirer, with Duncan Harris and Katia Houghton

References

Said, E.W. (2003) Freud and the Non-European. London: Verso.

Lorde, A. (2018) The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House. Penguin Classics.