Group analysis privileges the social and political, aiming to address individual distress and ‘disturbance’ within a representation of the context it developed and persists in. Reproducing the presence and impact of racism in groups comes easily while creating conditions for reparation can be complicated. This is despite considerable contributions to the subject of racism by group analysts. By focusing on an unconscious, defensive manoeuvre I have observed in groups when black people describe racism in their lives, I hope to build upon the existing body of work. I will discuss the manoeuvre which I call the white mirror. I aim to theoretically elucidate the white mirror. I will argue that it can be understood as a vestigial trauma response with roots as far back as the invention of ‘race’. Through racialized sedimentation in the social unconscious, it has been generationally transmitted into the present day. It emerges in an exacerbated way within the amplified space of analytic groups when there is ethnically-diverse membership. I argue it is inevitable and even essential that racism emerges in groups as a manifestation of members’ racialized social unconscious including that of the conductor(s). This potentially offers opportunities for individual, group and societal reparation and healing. However, when narratives of racism are instead pushed to one side, regarded as a peripheral issue of concern only to minority black or other members of colour, I ask whether systems of segregation, ghettoization or colonization are replicated in analytic groups. This is the first of two articles about the white mirror. The second article which is also published in this issue highlights practice implications.
This is my second article about a form of group mirroring I have called the white mirror. The previous article focused on underpinning theory. This article is practice oriented. I argue that the white mirror is a defensive structure, primarily functioning to prevent white group members, including the conductor(s) from coming face to face with the reality of racism. It mirrors projections in the form of racist stereotypes for black members to internalize in their position as the location of disturbance. I highlight present and historical black victimization which I feel requires elucidation given its position in the shadows of psychotherapy. I am mindful of the intersecting nature of identities and touch on this through a clinical example. I suggest how group analysts might work with the ubiquity of racism, engaging ethnically-diverse members at a level of full and mutual humanity.
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