Postcolonial Freud: Psychoanalysis in the French Antilles

Abstract

While Martinique and Guadeloupe were assimilated into the French state in 1946, traces of colonial power relations and economic structures persist despite the islands' current status as French départements equal to any other. This article examines the contributions of Freud's thought to the shift in critical perspective that has allowed the continued ‘colonial’ status of these islands, and the cultural alienation of its people, to be identified as a problem or phenomenon requiring analysis and rectification. Speaking of ‘postcolonial Freud’ in this context is tantamount to asking: which postcolony for the French Antillean future, and which Freud for the thought emerging from this space?