HISC 130 Blackness and the Psychoanalytic Imaginary

Scholars in African and Black Studies have critiqued Freudian and post-Freudian psychoanalysis for its claim of universality, emphasizing its conscious and unconscious failures in accounting for the psycho-historical effects of racial violence. Drawing on thinkers and practitioners situated in both disciplines, this seminar examines Freudian notions of instinct, drive, desire, death, and sexuality in relation to blackness. Our critical study of Freud is guided by the following questions: how should we make sense of the seeming incommensurability between psychoanalysis and blackness?