Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research

Works on Race and Psychoanalysis

A black and white photo of an African American family standing outside in winter coats.

The following represents a sampling of important works in our literature bearing on diversity, equity, and inclusion. This is, necessarily, a partial list. We strongly encourage you to share with us references that have been meaningful to you, so that we may add them here.

Papers

  • Adelson S et al, (2012) Practice Parameter on Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual Sexual Orientation, Gender Nonconformity, and Gender Discordance in Children and Adolescents, J. Amer Acad. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 51 (9): 957–974
  • Akhtar, S. (1995). A Third Individuation: Immigration, Identity, And The Psychoanalytic Process. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 43:1051-1084.
  • Akhtar, S (2010). Muslims of the World: Less Familiar Narratives. Int. J. Appl. Psychoanal. Stud., 7:193-196.
  • Akhtar, S. (2014). The Mental Pain of Minorities. Brit. J. Psychother., 30:136­153.
  • Altman N.  (2006). Whiteness. Psychoanal Q., 75:45-72.
  • Altman, N. (2006). How Psychoanalysis Became White in the United States, and How that Might Change. Psychoanal. Perspect., 3:65-72.
  • Altman (2006) Black and White Thinking: A Psychoanalyst Reconsiders Race. Psychoanal. Dial., 10:589-605.
  • Bockting WO et al (2006). Counseling and Mental Health Care of Transgender Adults and Loved Ones, International Journal of Transgenderism 9(3)
  • Bodnar, S. (2004). Remember Where You Come From: Dissociative Process in Multicultural Individuals. Psychoanal. Dial., 14:581-603.
  • Critchfield, A. and Pula, J. (2015): On Psychotherapy, LGBT identity, and Cultural Visibility: In Conversation with Alison Bechdel. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health. 19: 397-412
  • Denny D (2002) A Selective Bibliography of Transsexualism, Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy 6(2):35-66
  • Drescher J, Byne W (2012) Treating Transgender Children and Adolescents: An Interdisciplinary Discussion, Journal of Homosexuality, 59 (3):295-300 (Also available in book format)
  • Eng, D.L., Han, S. (2000). A Dialogue on Racial Melancholia. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 10: 667-700.
  • Foster, P.R. (1996), The bilingual self: Duet in two voices. Psychoanal. Dial., 6: 99-121. 
  • Friedman, R.A. (2015): How changeable is gender? New York Times, August 22, 2015
  • Grossmark R (2006). Step Across this Line: A personal reflection on the diverse experience.  Psychanal. Perspect., 3:43-48.
  • Holmes, D. E. (1999). Race and countertransference: Two “blind spots” in psychoanalytic perception. Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 1, 319-332
  • Holmes, D.E. (1992). Race and Transference in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. International Journal of psychoanalysis. 73:1-11
  • Denny, D. (2002). A selective bibliography of transsexualism. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Psychotherapy, 6(2), 35–66
  • Ipp, H (2013) Introduction: The Immigrant Analyst: Journeys Beyond Otherness.  Psychoanal Dial, 23:551-553.
  • Jacobs, L (2014) Learning to love white shame and guilt: Skills for working as as white therapist in a racially divided country.  Int J Psychoanal. Self Psychol, 9:297-312
  • Leary, K. (1997). Race, self-disclosure and “forbidden talk”: race and ethnicity in contemporary clinical practice. Psychoanalytic Quarterly. 66: 163-189
  • Leary, K (2000). Racial Enactments in Dynamic Treatment. Psychoanal. Dial., 10:639-653.
  • Leary, K (2012). Race as an Adaptive Challenge: Working with diversity in the clinical consulting room. Psychoanal. Psychol, 29:279-291.
  • Lowe, F. (2008). Colonial Object Relations: Going Underground Black-White Relationships. Brit. J. Psychother., 24:20-33.
  • Mann, M.A. (2006). The formation and development of individual and ethnic identity: insights from psychiatry and psychoanalytic theory. American Journal of Psychoanalysis. 66: 211-224.
  • Marcus, BF (2013) “Strange and otherwise unaccountable actions:” Category, conundrum and Trans Identities. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 61:45-66.
  • McNamara S (2013) Gay Male Desires and Sexuality in the Twenty-first Century: How I listen. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 61: 341-361.
  • Miller, A.E., Josephs, L. (2009). Whiteness as Pathological Narcissism. Contemp. Psychoanal., 45:93-119.
  • Powell, D. R. (2021) Race Matters in Psychoanalytic Education (Psychoanalysis.today. Issue 14: Race, Caste, Class, Faith. July 16, 2021
  • Powell, D. R. (2020) From the Sunken Place to the Shitty Place: The Film Get Out, Psychic Emancipation and Modern Race Relations From a Psychodynamic Clinical Perspective. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 89:415-445
  • Powell, D. R. (2018) Race, African Americans, and Psychoanalysis: Collective Silence in the Therapeutic Conversation. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 66:1021-1049
  • Pula, J. (2015). Understanding Gender Through the Lens of Transgdender Experience. Psychoanalytic Inquiry. 35(8): 809-822
  • Pula, J. (2016). The Role of the Psychiatrist Working with Transgender Patients.  Psychiatric Annals. 46(6): 340-345
  • Roland, A. (1995). Value issues involving Western psychoanalysis with Asian patients. Journal of the American Academy Psychoanalysis. 23:283-292
  • Saketopoulou A (2014). Mourning the body as bedrock: developmental considerations in treating transsexual patients analytically. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Asssociation, 62(5):773-805. (Ralph Roughton Award and JAPA Prize)
  • Smolar, AI (1999) Bridging the Gap: Technical Aspects of the Analysis of an Asian Immigrant. J Clin. Psychoanal., 8:567-594.
  • Steensma, T, Biemond, R et al. (2011): Desisting and persisting gender dysphoria after childhood: a qualitative follow-up study. Clin. Child Psychol Psychiatry. 16: 499-516.Togashi, K. (2010). An Effort to Find Self Psychological Concepts in an Asian Culture. Int. J. Psychoanal. Self Psychol., 5:113-115.
  • Steensma, T, Biemond, R et al. (2011): Desisting and persisting gender dysphoria after childhood: a qualitative follow-up study. Clin. Child Psychol Psychiatry. 16: 499-516.
  • Weille, KH. (2002). The Psychodynamics of Consensual Sadomasochistic and Dominant-Submissive Sexual Games, Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 3: 131-160.
  • Yi, K (1998). Transference and Race: An Intersubjective Conceptualization. Psychoanal. Psychology, 15:245-261.
  • Yi, K. (2014). Toward Formulation of Ethnic Identity beyond the Binary of White Oppressor and Racial Other. Psychoanal. Psychol., 31:426-434.
  •  Young-Breuhl, E (2010). Sexual diversity in cosmopolitan perspective. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 11:1-9.

Journal Volumes

  • Psychiatric Annals, (June, 2016), on “Transgender Mental Health”
  • Psychoanalytic Dialogues (2011) vol 21 on” Transgender Subjectivities”
  • Psychoanalytic Inquiry (2015) vol 35(8), on “Category/Gender”

Books and Book Chapters

  • Akhtar, S. (2005): Freud Along the Ganges: Psychoanalytic reflections on the People and Culture of India. New York: Other Press
  • Akhtar, S and Chosksi, K (2005) “Bollywood and the Indian Unconscious” in Akhtar, S. and Tummala-Narra, P, Freud Along the Ganges, Other Press, 472pp.
  • Akhtar, S. & Kramer, S. (1998). The Colors of Childhood: Separation-Individuation Across Cultural, Racial, and Ethnic Differences. Northvale, NJ: Aronson.
  • Akhtar, S. (2009). Freud and the Far East: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the People and Culture of China, Korea, and Japan. Northvale, NJ: Aronson.
  • Beemyn G; Rankin S (2011) The Lives of Transgender People New York Columbia University Press
  • Corbett K (2016) A Murder Over a Girl: Justice, Gender, Junior High, New York Henry Holt and Co
  • Erickson-Schroth, L (2014) TransBodies TransSelves- A Resource for the Transgender Community, Oxford and New York Oxford University Press
  • Fanon, F. (1952)  Black Skin, White Masks (1952), New York: Grove Press
  • Karasic D (2014) Transgender and gender non-conforming patients. In Clini­cal Manual of Cultural Psychiatry. 2nd ed. (Lin R, ed.) Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, 397-409
  • Kakar, S. (2001): The Essential Writings of Sudhir Kakar. New York: Oxford university Press
  • Liebow, E: (2003): Tally's Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men. New York: Rowman and Littlefield
  • Meyerwitz J (2002) How Sex Changed: A His­tory of Transsexuality in the United States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
  • Powell, D.R., A Case Analysis of an Academic Scientist in Her Early Thirties: Authorship and Stolen Ambitions (2019 book Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Women and Their Experience of Desire, Ambition and Leadership, Arnold & Brody, eds
  • Powell, D. Psychoanalysis and African Americans: Past, Present and Future, Powell DP in The African American Experience: Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Jason Aronson, Inc., Salman Akhtar editor, 2012
  • Solomon, A (2102) Far from the Tree:Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, New York, Scribner, Chapter on Transgender
  • Sripada, S (2005) “Psychic Bisexuality, Male Homosexuality, Plural Oedipus Complex, and Hinduism” in Akhtar, S.and Tummala-Narra, P, Freud Along the Ganges, Other Press, 472pp.
  • Tummala-Narran, P. (2014). Cultural Identity in the Context of Trauma and Immigration from a Psychoanalytic Perspective. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 31 (3), 396-409.
  • Uba, L. (2003). Asian Americans: Personality Patterns, Identity, and Mental Health. Guilford Press.
  • Vaughan, S.C. The Dignity of One’s Experience: Finding Dignity in the Lives of LGBT people. Chapter in Dignity, S. Akhtar, ed, Routledge 2015

Autobiography

  • Boylan, JF (2003) She's Not There: Life in Two Genders, New York, Random House
  • Coates, T. (2015): Between the World and Me. Spiegel & Graue
  • Green, J (2004) Becoming a Visible Man, Nashville, TN, Vanderbilt University Press
  • Perez, R. (2014). Handbook for an Unpredictable Life. Three Rivers Press, New York,
  • Sotelo, E. Speak Up! Penguin Group, New York, NY, 2015, pp. 5-26.
  • Sotomayor, S. My Beloved World, Vintage Books, New York, NY, 2014

We encourage all members to deepen their understanding of the role of racism in our society and our professions through the following resources:

Books

  • Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: the Origins of our Discontent, Random House, 2020.
  • Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, New Press, 2020.
  • Dorothy Roberts, Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the Twenty-first Century, New Press, 2012.
  • Heather McGee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, One World, 2021.
  • Harriet A. Washington, Medical Apartheid: the Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, Anchor Books, 2008.
  • Beverly Daniel Tatum, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: and Other Conversations about Race, Basic Books, 2017.
  • Jonathan M. Metzl, The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease, Beacon Press, 2011
  • Robin Diangelo, While Fragility: Why It's so Hard for White People to Talk about Racism, Beacon Press, 2018.
  • Ibram X. Kendi, How to Become an Antiracist, One World, 2019
  • Ijeoma Oluo, Mediocre: the Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, Seal Press, 2020.

Film

  • I Am Not Your Negro, directed by Raoul Peck

Podcasts

  • Code Switch
  • The 1619 Project: Examining the Legacy of Slavery and the Building of a Nation
  • Seeing White