Exploring the Dynamic Unconscious: Intersubjectivity and the Raced-Self in Vertically Infected HIV-Positive Adolescents
<p class="first" id="d416909e86">This paper explores intrapsychic life as a site of socio-political insertion from birth. The first part of this paper engages with the psychoanalytic theory of Melanie Klein on the notion of the dynamic unconscious an...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Pluto Journals
2019-11-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies |
| Online Access: | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/intecritdivestud.2.2.0055 |
| Summary: | <p class="first" id="d416909e86">This paper explores intrapsychic life as a site of socio-political insertion from
birth. The first part of this paper engages with the psychoanalytic theory of Melanie
Klein on the notion of the dynamic unconscious and the Oedipal situation as key processes
in the development of the self. The paper goes on to discuss the critical contemporary
position taken up by scholars who have highlighted the racialisation of the Oedipus
complex and its use in justifying racial hierarchies. Furthermore, the paper engages
with the unconscious as an intersubjective organising principle. Franz Fanon's psychoanalytic
framework, that deals with colonial subjectivity, is reviewed here in order to explore
how the raced-self becomes imposed and internalised. The second part of the paper
locates this theoretical argument within the context of HIV. Intrapsychic development,
which comes to be located in our unconscious mind from birth, cannot be understood
outside of specific socio-political considerations. The unique developmental challenges
of HIV for those who are vertically infected cannot be taken for granted, and there
must be more deliberation on the ways in which intersubjective, politically aware
versions of psychoanalysis can be used to inform clinical knowledge and practice in
working with vertically infected HIV-positive adolescents in South Africa.
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| ISSN: | 2516-550X 2516-5518 |