Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Object fear: The national dissociation of race and racism in the era of Obama

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper furthers the use of psychoanalysis as a lens for reading the contemporary political and social world and explores the ongoing reproduction of the racial unconscious in the United States. In applying a psychoanalytic lens to interpersonal violence and legal and political discourse during Obama’s presidency, we attempt to explore how internal fear of blackness prevents America and psychoanalysis from accessing non-destructive relational psychological spaces. We argue that the violent responses to racial blackness and power are not second-hand effects of racial and economic disparity, but rather intimate parts of our psychodynamics that involve an intersubjective process we term “object fear.” We discuss relational theories that help us negotiate object fear as a location for often ignored racialized group and dyadic psychodynamics, looking at specific examples of object fear, interpersonal violence and the limits of relational psychoanalysis to address these types of object relations. We end by turning to a series of recent Supreme Court decisions to look at the ways in which object fear has been triggered at this historical moment in relation to the presence of a black president and the threat to the maintenance of white supremacy in the United States.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. On Michelle Obama’s ancestry see Swarns and Kantor (2009). On verbal attacks see “Why They Keep Attacking Michelle Obama” (NewsOne, 2012).

  2. The “Birthers” are an organization that makes the claim that President Obama does not meet the requirements for the presidency because, according to the Birthers, he is not a “natural born” citizen due to his father’s immigration status and the claim that Obama himself might have been born in Africa.

  3. Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested on the porch of his home on July 16, 2009. Gates had returned from a trip and was having trouble getting into his house. A white woman in the neighborhood saw Gates and his driver struggling with the front door and reported a possible attempted break-in. When the police arrived, Gates became angry at the implication that a black man struggling with his own door was a criminal and that the officer would not recognize the racial biases circulating in the situation. Gates yelled at the officer as he left the house and was then arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. After President Obama responded by saying the police “acted stupidly,” he set up a meeting of himself, Vice President Biden, the arresting officer, and Gates over beers on the White House lawn. A telling Daily News piece reported that 41% of Americans disagreed with the president’s handling of the situation and described Obama’s attempt openly to discuss the racial dynamics at play in the incident as “ripping a scab off one of America’s most emotionally charged issues [and] damag[ing] his strategy to push health care reform (Bazinet et al, 2009).”

  4. On March 23, 2012 during a press conference, President Obama unexpectedly responded to questions about the then ongoing case of the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. The president said, “If I had a son he would look like Trayvon.” But liberals and conservatives read this as an explicit comment about the racist nature of the crime – liberals largely cheering on Obama for openly addressing race (though he did not say “race” nor “black”) and conservatives condemning him for “playing the race card” and being divisive rather than representing all Americans. While the conservative reaction correlates more directly to what we term object fear (anxiety over the recognition of the internal blackened object), the widespread coverage of this comment from all sides indicates that any comment in which the president draws attention to his own racial blackness becomes a site of controversy and an opportunity for sensationalist news stories. On the use of the “race card” see Borelli (2014).

  5. This accusation of “blurting” seems to be a projection of Scalia’s own actions here – that is, to blurt out his feeling that the president’s agency was threatening – and echoes Wilson’s “blurting” of “You lie!”

References

  • Adams, M.V. (1996) The Multicultural Imagination: “Race”, Color, and the Unconscious. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Altman, N. (2000) Black and white thinking: A psychoanalyst reconsiders race. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 10 (4): 589–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altman, N. (2006a) How psychoanalysis became white in the United States, and how that might change. Psychoanalytic Perspectives 3 (2): 5–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altman, N. (2006b) Whiteness. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 75 (1): 45–72.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Altman, N. (2013) Psychoanalysis in and out of the office. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society 18 (2): 128–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Associated Press (2009) Joe Wilson resolution of disapproval. Huffington Post, 15 November, online edition. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/15/joe-wilson-resolutionof-_n_287616.html, accessed 11 September 2014.

  • Bazinet, K.R., Defrank, R.M. and Mcauliff, M. (2009) President Obama shares beer with Henry Louis gates Jr., Sgt. James Crowley... and Biden, too. New York Daily News online edition, 30 July. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/president-obama-shares-beer-henry-louis-gates-jr-sgt-james-crowley-biden-article-1.396506, accessed 11 September 2014.

  • Benjamin, J. (1988) The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination. New York: Pantheon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benjamin, J. (1995) Like Subjects, Love Objects: Essays on Recognition and Sexual Difference. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benjamin, J. (1998) Shadow of the Other: Intersubjectivity and Gender in Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benjamin, J. (2004) Beyond doer and done to: An intersubjective view of thirdness. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 73 (1): 5–46.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Benjamin, J. (2006) Two-Way streets: Recognition of difference and the interpretive third. Differences: a Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 17 (1): 117–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benjamin, J. (2011) Facing reality together discussion: With culture in mind: The social third. Studies in Gender and Sexuality 12 (1): 27–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borelli, D. (2014) Sharpton defends Obama using race card. Deneenborelli.com. 26 January http://deneenborelli.com/2014/01/sharpton-defends-obamas-using-race-card/, accessed 13 September 2014.

  • Bromberg, P.M. (2001) Standing in the Spaces: Essays on Clinical Process, Trauma and Dissociation. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burleson, B.W. (2005) Jung in Africa. New York: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carbado, D.W., Crenshaw, K. and Harris, C. (2013) Racial profiling lives on. New York Times 14 August, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/opinion/racial-profiling-lives-on.html?_r=0, accessed 9 September 2014.

  • Davids, M.F. (2003) Book review: Race, colour and the processes of racialization. New perspectives from group analysis, psychoanalysis and sociology by Farhad Dalal. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 84 (6): 1648–1652.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davids, M.F. (2011) Internal Racism: A Psychological Approach to Race and Difference. New York: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowd, M. (2009) Boy, oh, boy. New York Times Sept 13: WK17.

  • Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903, 1997) The Souls of Black Folk. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evarts, A.B. (1914) Dementia precox in the colored race. Psychoanalytical Review 1: 388–403.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fanon, F. (1967) Black Skin, White Masks. Translated C.L. Markmann. New York: Grove.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher v University of Texas at Austin (2013) 11-345 US.

  • Freud, S. (1921, 1955) Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. Standard Edition 18. London: Hogarth Press, pp. 65–144.

  • Gilman, S.L. (1991) The Jew’s Body. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilman, S.L. (1993) Freud, Race, and Gender. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • GOP Rep. to Obama ‘You Lie!’ [Video file] (2014) Online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgce06Yw2ro, accessed 9 September 2014.

  • Green, A. (1986) On Private Madness. London: The Hogarth Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, A. (1999) The Work of the Negative. London: Free Association Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gump, J.P. (2010) Reality matters: The shadow of trauma on African American subjectivity. Psychoanalytic Psychology 27 (1): 42–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamer, F.M. (2002) Guards at the gate: Race, resistance, and psychic reality. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 50 (4): 1219–1237.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, C. (1993) Whiteness as property. Harvard Law Review 106 (8): 1709–1795.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hollway, W. (2013) Locating unconscious, “societal-collective” processes in psychosocial research. Organisational & Social Dynamics 13 (1): 22–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, D. (1992) Race and transference in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 73 (1): 1–11.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, D.E. (1997) The analyst in the inner city. Journal of the Ameican Psychoanalytic Association 45: 644–648.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, D. (2006) The wrecking effects of race and social class on self and success. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 75 (1): 215–235.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jung, C. (1912) America facing its most tragic moment. New York Times, 29 September: SM2, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9900E7D8113AE633A2575AC2A96F9C946396D6CF, accessed 9 September 2014.

  • Kovel, J. (2000) Reflections on white racism. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 10 (4): 579–587.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Layton, L. (2006) Racial identities, racial enactments, and normative unconscious processes. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 75 (1): 237–269.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Layton, L. (2008) Relational Thinking: From culture to couch and couch to culture. Object Relations and Social Relations: The Implications of the Relational Turn in Psychoanalysis. Chapter One. London: Karnac, pp. 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Layton, L. (2009) Who’s responsible? Our mutual implication in each other’s suffering. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 19 (2): 105–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leary, K. (1995) “Interpreting in the dark”: Race and ethnicity in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Psychoanalytic Psychology 12 (1): 127–140.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leary, K. (1997) Race in psychoanalytic space. Gender and Psychoanalysis 2 (2): 157–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leary, K. (2000) Racial enactments in dynamic treatment. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 10: 639–653.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leary, K. (2007) Racial insult and repair. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 10 (4): 663–665.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lind, J.E. (1914a) The color complex in the negro. Psychoanalytical Review 1: 404–414.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lind, J.E. (1914b) The dream as a simple wish-fulfilment in the negro. Psychoanalytical Review 1: 295–300.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, C. (1997) The Racial Contract. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • NewsOne (2012) Why they keep attacking Michelle Obama, 3 February, online edition, http://newsone.com/1848645/why-they-keep-attacking-michelle-obama/, accessed 9 September 2014.

  • Obama, B. (2009) Remarks by the President to a Joint Session of Congress on Heath Care. The White House: Office of the Press Secretary, 9 September, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-to-a-Joint-Session-of-Congress-on-Health-Care, accessed 14 October 2014.

  • Orange, D. (2010) Revisiting mutual recognition: Responding to Ringstrom, Benjamin, and Slavin. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Study 5 (3): 293–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rottenberg, C. (2003) Passing: Race, identification, and desire. Criticism 45 (1): 435–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, Attorney General (2013) 12-96 U.S.

  • Stern, D. (2004) Unformulated Experience: From Dissociation to Imagination in Psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Atlantic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Straker, G. (2011) Unsettling whiteness. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society 16 (1): 11–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suchet, M. (2004) A relational encounter with race. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 14 (4): 423–438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suchet, M. (2007) Unraveling whiteness. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 17 (6): 867–886.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swarns, R.L. and Kantor, J. (2009) In first lady’s roots, a complex path from slavery. New York Times, 8 October: A1, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/us/politics/08genealogy.html?pagewanted=all, accessed 9 September 2014.

  • Thompson, C. (1995) Self definition by opposition: A consequence of minority status. Psychoanalytic Psychology 12 (4): 533–545.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tolleson, J. (2009) Saving the world one patient at a time: Psychoanalysis and social critique. Psychotherapy and Politics International 7 (3): 190–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • United States v. Windsor (2013) 12-307 U.S.

  • Yankah, E.N. (2013) The truth about Trayvon. New York Times, 15 July, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/opinion/the-truth-about-trayvon.html, accessed 9 September 2014.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Private practice, 8786 188th, St. Hollis, 11423, NY, USA

    Annie Lee Jones

  2. Department of English, The College at Brockport, 350 New Campus Drive, Brockport, 14420, NY, USA

    Megan Obourn

Authors
  1. Annie Lee Jones
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Megan Obourn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Megan Obourn.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jones, A., Obourn, M. Object fear: The national dissociation of race and racism in the era of Obama. Psychoanal Cult Soc 19, 392–412 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/pcs.2014.38

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/pcs.2014.38

Keywords

Search

Navigation