Diversity, Intersectionality & Psychotherapy

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We live in a challenging age. With the death of George Floyd, the subsequent marches across the world against racism, the struggles of the #Metoo movement, campaigns for equal rights for the LGBTQ community, and the rise of Disability theorists. Yet, all these efforts towards equality in the face of varying types of oppression speak loudly of the voices of the others and their need to be heard and acknowledged. Within psychotherapy and psychology though, difference and diversity trainings have been slow in turning their considerable talents towards exploring or understanding the experiences of the other, often doing no more than to mirror the wider societal oppressions we all witness daily.
This morning session is designed to give facilitators, supervisors, lecturers, and markers an insight into the latest thinking around privilege and otherness within the profession. Drawing upon the idea of intersectionality, this taster presents a more nuanced, psychotherapeutic understanding of difference and diversity.

Reading Recommendations:

Books and Articles:
Aboud, F. E. (1988). Children and Prejudice. Basil Blackwell Limited. Aboud, F. E. (1993). The developmental psychology of racial prejudice. Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review, 30, 229–242. https://doi.org/10.1177/136346159303000303 Brewster, F. (2020).
The Racial Complex: A Jungian perspective on culture and race. Routledge. Buber, M. (2010). I and Thou. Martino Publishing Limited. Diangelo, R. (2011).
White fragility. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 3(3), 54–70. file:///C:/Users/CSWAC/Documents/CSWAC/Research articles/White fragility.pdf (her book White Fragility is also excellent)
Freud, S. (1930). Civilisation and its discontents. Penguin Limited.
Frosh, S. (2002). The Other. American Imago, 59(4), 389–407. https://doi.org/10.1353/aim.2002.0025
Frosh, S., & Baraitser, L. (2003). Thinking, recognition, and otherness. Psychoanalytic Review, 90(6), 771–789. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15150846
Spivak, G. (1993). Echo. New Literary History, 24(1), 17–43.
Podcasts:
Kicking the Kyriarchy (intersectional feminists talking about difference):
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/kicking-the-kyriarchy/id1108149497
Being LGBTQ: https://www.beinglgbtq.com/
The Partially Examined Life (existentialism and philosophy – this episode has the brilliant Judith Butler who is very well versed in psychodynamic theory): https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/?s=judith+butler
New Books in Psychoanalysis (this edition has the brilliant psychodynamic psychotherapist and feminist Carol Gilligan):
https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/carol-gilligan-naomi-snider-whydoes-patriarchy-persist/id423338807?i=1000465134385

About the Speaker:

Dr Dwight Turner - The Weekend University

Dr Dwight Turner, PhD

Dr Dwight Turner is a psychotherapist, Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the School of Applied Social Science at Brighton University. Dr Turner casts an intersectional lens on privilege, supremacy, otherness and social justice. He was invited to deliver the keynote presentation at the BACP’s ‘Working with Diversity’ Conference in 2019.

His recent blog post – “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” addressed the anguish and the action that has risen from the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and has been widely read by UK and US therapists. Dr Turner’s new book: ‘Linking Intersectional Theory of Privilege and Otherness to Counselling and Psychotherapy’ will be published by Routledge. You can keep up to date with his work and latest blog posts at: https://www.dwightturnercounselling.co.uk/ and follow him on twitter @Dturner300.