Is there, for the black person, only one destiny? A psychoanalytical approach

Abstract

This paper intends to think about how racism interferes in building the image of the black person in the process of subjective constitution, in its articulation with the discourse of the Other, as conceived by Jacques Lacan in his work, namely, as unconscious and its manifestations at the cultural level and at the level of the social bond. To this end, we will refer to the theoretical elaborations of Neusa Santos Souza, Frantz Fanon, and Grada Kilomba, authors who undertook, each in their own time and their respective readings and social contexts, powerful reflections on racism from a psychoanalysis standpoint. Through the conception of language as proposed by Lacan and the concept of blackness in Munanga, we indicate how the issue updates itself in Brazil today. To conclude, understanding that there is psychic suffering engendered by this mode of segregation, we suggest alternatives and ways that articulate the empowerment of the subject that crosses and is at the same time crossed by the collective.

Keywords

• Blackness
• racism
• psychoanalysis
• image
• subjective constitution