Working with Race in the Clinical Encounter: A Psychoanalytic Perspective

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course explores the psychological presence of race in the clinical setting through a psychoanalytic lens. Emphasizing the social construction of race as both an intrapsychic and intersubjective phenomenon, students will engage with core concepts such as racialized transference and countertransference, societal introjection, and the role of identity in therapeutic relationships. Drawing from contemporary psychoanalytic theory, case material, and clinical discussion, the course invites students to deepen their capacity to work in the here-and-now with the racial dimension of clinical material. Through a combination of readings, discussion, and reflective practice, participants will be encouraged to examine their own racial identities and consider how racial constructs emerge and operate in the therapeutic dyad. The goal is to develop a clinically grounded and theoretically sophisticated approach to working with race in psychodynamic practice.