Psychoanalytic and clinical lessons of Fanon's notion of sociogeny

Speaker and affiliation

Prof. dr. Derek Hook is an Associate professor in Psychology at Duquesne University and an Extraordinary Professor of Psychology at the University of Pretoria and South Africa. Derek Hook is both a scholar and a clinical practitioner of psychoanalysis with an expertise in the psychology of racism, critical psychology and postcolonial theory, particularly in the work of Frantz Fanon. A significant aspect of his scholarship involves the integration of Frantz Fanon’s theories on race and colonialism with (Lacanian) psychoanalysis, allowing the exploration of the psychological dimensions of racial identity, power and oppression.

Abstract

Frantz Fanon (1925 – 1961) was a French psychiatrist, philosopher and revolutionary thinker of Mariniquan descent and is known for his influential works on colonialism, racism, and the liberation of oppressed peoples. His key ideas include the psychological and social effects of colonial oppression on both the colonized and the colonizers, which he explored in books such as ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ (1952) and ‘The Wretched of the Earth’ (1961). He focused on the necessity of revolution and stressed the importance of decolonizing the mind as a crucial part of the struggle for freedom and equality. Fanon’s work has had a lasting impact on anti-colonial movements and in the academic field of postcolonial studies.

Frantz Fanon's famous insistence that in '[b]esides... [Freud's] ontogeny stands sociogeny' is often read as an explicit rejection of an ontogenic and/or psychoanalytic approach. And there is some justification for such a reading, given that in colonial/racist contexts, it is the case for Fanon that 'the Black man's alienation is not an individual question', a consideration which pushes clinicians always to be aware of what Fanon refers to as a 'question of socodiagnostics'. And yet, a careful reading of Fanon's position - taken in tandem with the input of scholars such as David Marriott - suggests that Fanon's prioritization of sociogenesis need not imply a rejection of an ontogenic approach, but a careful consideration of how the two work in conjunction. This talk will seek to flesh out Fanon's ideas of sociogenesis, sociodiagnostics and also the question of how - perhaps via Freud's notion of deferred action - ontogenesis and sociogenesis should be read conjointly.

Co-organisers

• Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting
• Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees – CESSMIR

Practicals

• Thursday, 19^th of September, 3-4.30 PM
• Programme: 3-4 PM lecture Derek Hook, 4-4.30 PM Q&A
• Location : Campus Dunant –room 3.3 (third floor) - Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent OR online
• Registration: participation is free yet registration is obligatory, link https://event.ugent.be/registration/derekhook
• Lecture can be followed online via Microsoft Teams
• Feel free to spread this invite further in your network

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