When White Buffalo Calf Woman Meets Oedipus on the Road

Abstract

This paper constructs a conversation about male violence between psychoanalytic feminism and Lakota psychology, based on interviews carried out at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in the United States. The paper has four aims. First, it outlines the concepts in feminist psychoanalytic theory that inform this study, and discusses key dilemmas that arise in working across cultural borders established through histories of colonial domination. Second, the paper identifies areas of common ground between feminist psychoanalytic theory and indigenous psychologies, focusing on their shared emphasis on traumatic splits in the human psyche, gender development, and storytelling. Third, the paper describes the Cangleska program developed by Lakota practitioners at Pine Ridge-a systematically conceived set of services that combines psychological, cultural, and political analyses of violence-and explains how Cangleska offers insights that go beyond the borders of indigenous communities. Fourth, the paper draws out lines of convergence between Kleinian psychoanalysis and Lakota principles in their ethical responses to violence and discusses the implications of such convergences for the wider anti-violence movement.

Qualitative research interviewing: application and use of free association

“…Other researchers describe participants responding to interview questions in a 'free associative way' (Roper 2003). They also connect a psychotherapeutic sensibility or psychodynamically inflected approach to researcher reflexivity and the use of 'associative' lines of thinking, that is, of giving time to contemplate connections in research material that are not immediately or straightforwardly apparent (Sherwood 1980, Jones 1998, Meek 2003, Froggett and Chamberlayne 2004, Haaken 2008, Jervis 2011, Skoll 2012, Ainslie 2013, Stein 2017. Alongside these contributions, the parallels between Hollway and Jefferson's version of free association and the Kleinian 'diagnostic' understanding of the concept in psychoanalysis can be acknowledged, with its emphasis on the content of patients' communications and the phantasy that lies beneath them as compared to the activity of free association as a means of self-observation (Author Ref).…”

What does Theory & Psychology have to offer community-orientated psychologists?

“…Immersive and action-orientated participative scholarship that is less deductive or top-down, and that spans the academy and external communities by embracing the dialectics of theory, research, practice, and teaching (we can take our students with us) is particularly important in understanding intercultural collaborations to address social issues. In a contribution that speaks directly to these issues, Haaken (2008) presents a conversation between Indigenous Lakota psychology and psychoanalytic feminism regarding men's family violence through the Cangleska intervention program. Haaken demonstrates the importance of conceptualising practice and associated research through immersive dialogical processes that do not shy away from the negative legacies of colonial histories.…”

“…This participative way of operating is also crucial for repopulating the discipline with conflicted and often contradictory people as well as practitioners who continue to learn and grow on the job. Haaken (2008) proposes that this orientation is crucial "In emphasizing the full humanity of perpetrators, and how interpersonal violence is overdetermined by histories not of their own choosing" (p. 205). Such a perspective opens necessary spaces for working constructively to address men's family violence with all family members.…”

“…Additionally, this way of operating is foundational to efforts to breach and break away from monocultural practices in psychology. As Haaken (2008) asserts, it helps to heal the immediate damage of personal violent acts through invoking cultural accountabilities for the men concerned, as well as for addressing the long-lasting colonial traumas that are implicated in the violence enacted by these men today.…”

“…This involved conducting a keyword search of the journal up to and including volume 29 (2019) using the terms action*, engagement*, community*, participative*, activism*, and praxis*. It quickly became apparent that this journal has offered sophisticated reflexive engagements with exemplars of: praxis (Colucci & Colombo, 2018;Gergen & Zielke, 2006), social change initiatives (Parker, 2009;Stephenson & Kippax, 2006), efforts to address men's family violence (Haaken, 2008), resisting homophobia (Russell & Bohan, 2006), promoting the efficacy of feminist practice (Macleod, 2006), engaging in collaborative inquiry (Sugiman, 2006), key concepts in applied scholarship (Parker, 2015), professional deafness to client and community voices (Raeff, 2019;Swartz, 2005), and Indigenous psychologies and decoloniality (Nwoye, 2015(Nwoye, , 2017.…”