Taking the group (really) seriously. Race, racism and group analysis

Abstract

The paper is an autobiographical account of the critical role that race and racism came to play in the writing of the book Taking the Group Seriously (1998) over 20 years ago. I will start out by telling you something about my history and early life experiences which eventually took me to the IGA in London to train as a group analyst. I will describe how and why I started to become increasingly preoccupied with the themes of race and racism which eventually led me to doing a PhD on the subject. As I delved deeper into the study I was faced with a number of theoretical and experiential difficulties. The engagement with these difficulties led to the critique of the world view that prevailed (and I would say, continues to prevail) in mainstream psychoanalysis and group analysis. I will use some of my experiences at the IGA from that time to make links with dynamics within the institution today.