Psychoanalysis and Colonialism: A Contemporary Introduction

Within this important and insightful book, Sally Swartz introduces readers to early entanglements of psychoanalytic theory with colonialism and how it has led to significant and long-lasting implications for psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis and Colonialism is unique in drawing together a wide array of sources and a span of history from the beginnings of psychoanalysis to current theory and practice. The book explores ways in which Freudian theory incorporated the idea of the primitive into the centre of mapping the untamed territories of the unconscious, via notions of taming instinctual excess, civilizing the primitive and conquering and bringing order to wildness. The text describes the influences of colonialism on the thinking of Freud and Jung and goes on to describe anti-colonial voices, including Césaire and Mannoni, Memmi and Fanon, and their contribution to psychoanalytic theory. It concludes with thoughts on the challenges of decolonizing psychoanalysis.

This book is an accessible account of the links between colonialism and psychoanalysis and is suitable for general readers with an interest in the topic, as well as all psychoanalytic practitioners grappling with the ways in which issues of race, class, gender and sexuality affect their ways of working and writing.

Sally Swartz is a practising psychoanalytic psychotherapist and Emeritus Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town. She has a particular interest in the fields of colonialism and decolonization in psychoanalytic theory. She is the author of Homeless Wanderers: Movement and Mental Illness in the Cape Colony in the Nineteenth Century (2015) and Ruthless Winnicott: The Role of Ruthlessness in Psychoanalysis and Political Protest (2019).