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INSTITUTIONAL RACISM: CAN PSYCHOTHERAPY CHANGE?
Author(s) -
Cooper Andrew
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.2010.01211.x
Subject(s) - racism , psychoanalytic theory , resistance (ecology) , psychology , diversity (politics) , institutional racism , organizational change , work (physics) , social psychology , psychotherapist , sociology , public relations , gender studies , political science , ecology , mechanical engineering , anthropology , engineering , biology
In this paper I explore programmes of work undertaken to address institutional racism within two institutions providing psychoanalytic psychotherapy training and services. The paper suggests that training institutions of this kind may be paradoxically positioned. The same features that we might expect to facilitate reflection and change in favour of increased tolerance and diversity may act as points of organizational resistance to change. The paper draws on a range of theoretical resources that may be helpful in understanding the acute anxieties that are often mobilized when institutional racism is named and identified as something the organization has decided to tackle. The account is interwoven with various personal reflections on the experience of this work, and some autobiographical observations that may illuminate the stories presented.