Limits on Love: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Psychoanalytic Texts

Abstract

Critical discourse methodology and a Black feminist lens were used to examine the discourse of contemporary psychoanalysis, specifically to investigate the relationship between language, love, and power. Findings of the analysis include the following. The discourse encourages engagement with linguistic shortcuts, wherein concepts such as oppression and bigotry are used as conduits to discuss intrapsychic experiences. The discourse frames whiteness as the center of experience and marginalizes Blackness, Indigenousness, and other nonwhite perspectives. The discourse is vague about what constitutes love and what place love should have in clinical work. Ultimately, the discourse of the texts in this analysis suggests there is more work to do, more areas in the discipline to disrupt, and more love to give.