The Psychoanalyst’s Superegos, Ego Ideals and Blind Spots

Sedlak, Vic

doi:10.4324/9780429261916

Cited by 5 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…There are though clear links to me made with Sedlak's (2019) observations, which concern the superego's role in prohibiting thought. For Sedlak (2019), we may dread thinking because of its potential to arouse a pathological superego that invites strict moral judgement, a toxic form of guilt, and seemingly endless punishment. Such dread can cause persistent blind spots in a therapist's understanding and lead to analytic impasse (Sedlak, 2019).…”

Section: Discomfort Signifying Deficit: White Privilegementioning

confidence: 83%

“…In this paper, it is not possible to consider in depth the intricacies of the prohibitive power of the superego and its links with internal racism. There are though clear links to me made with Sedlak's (2019) observations, which concern the superego's role in prohibiting thought. For Sedlak (2019), we may dread thinking because of its potential to arouse a pathological superego that invites strict moral judgement, a toxic form of guilt, and seemingly endless punishment.…”

Section: Discomfort Signifying Deficit: White Privilegementioning

confidence: 88%

“…The dread of such a hostile response from within can render self-awareness intolerable and lead to persistent blind spots in analysis (Sedlak, 2019).…”

Section: Discomfort Signifying Deficit: White Privilegementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For Sedlak (2019), we may dread thinking because of its potential to arouse a pathological superego that invites strict moral judgement, a toxic form of guilt, and seemingly endless punishment. Such dread can cause persistent blind spots in a therapist's understanding and lead to analytic impasse (Sedlak, 2019). This seems especially significant if recognizing internal racism puts us into conflict with our analytic ego ideals (Sedlak, 2019).…”

Section: Discomfort Signifying Deficit: White Privilegementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such dread can cause persistent blind spots in a therapist's understanding and lead to analytic impasse (Sedlak, 2019). This seems especially significant if recognizing internal racism puts us into conflict with our analytic ego ideals (Sedlak, 2019).…”

Section: Discomfort Signifying Deficit: White Privilegementioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The White Man in the Room: Finding My Position as a White Therapist

Weir¹

2021

Brit J Psychotherapy

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This paper explores the discomfort that resulted from a brief exchange between a white male therapist and a black male patient. The discomfort is understood as pointing towards an absence of racial understanding in the therapist, which contributed to a breakdown in empathic communication. This absence is explored in relation to the concept of internal racism and used to highlight an inequality in the subjective experience of race between the therapist and patient (Davids, 2011; Internal Racism: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Race and Difference). The notion of white privilege is introduced and considered as a useful counterpart to internal racism for thinking about white racial experience. White privilege is viewed as a useful concept for making present what is often missing from discussions of race and difference. It is suggested that until white experience acquires racial meanings, the burden of thinking about race will be placed upon the racial other (Davids, 2011). These themes are considered from within a psychoanalytic framework, but significant use is made of ideas from outside psychoanalytic theory to demonstrate the complex interplay of internal and external forces that give shape to unconscious racism. It is suggested that further exploration of these ideas in relation to the superego could be especially useful for clinical understanding.

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Section: Discomfort Signifying Deficit: White Privilegementioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Discomfort Signifying Deficit: White Privilegementioning

confidence: 88%

“…The dread of such a hostile response from within can render self-awareness intolerable and lead to persistent blind spots in analysis (Sedlak, 2019).…”

Section: Discomfort Signifying Deficit: White Privilegementioning

confidence: 99%