Maudsley Lecture | Whiteness – A problem for our time

‘Whiteness’ is a lived experience and a substantial factor in how one navigates the world and how one is navigated around by others. The ‘fragility’, the colour-blind approach and the silencing process of disavowal that develops in the childhood of white liberal families, are means of maintaining white privilege and racism. A psychoanalytic approach can, therefore, be useful in understanding psychological implications but only as one part of a wider perspective. 

The work required of whiteness and the letting go of privilege is essential if we are to dismantle the system of racism that is so embedded within our society. I argue this is no altruistic endeavour but that, whilst clearly doing untold harm to black people, such a system also limits and distorts the development of white individuals and the society in which we are citizens.

Helen Morgan is a Fellow of the British Psychotherapy Foundation and a training analyst and supervisor for the British Jungian Analytic Association within the bpf. Her background is in therapeutic communities with adolescents and in adult mental health. She was chair of the British Association of Psychotherapists from 2004 - 2008 and chair of the British Psychoanalytic Council from 2015-18. She has published a number of papers including several on racism, and her book ‘The Work of Whiteness. A psychoanalytic perspective’ is due for publication in Spring 2021