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Lecture: Immigration and Its Discontents: The Invisible Hand of Whiteness in Latin America: A case study in Community Psychoanalysis by Rossanna Echegoyén, LCSW

This lecture will be held virtually on Zoom. It will be an abbreviated version of the February conference, with the goal being to expand the audience and make the program more accessible. It is open to all, including those who attended the February event.

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In the language of economics, ‘the invisible hand,’ refers to the unseen forces of the free market economy.  The invisible hand of whiteness in Latin America centers white supremacy as the invisible force that subjugated an entire region. In recent years, in particular in the 1980s, U.S. foreign policy acted as an instrument of colonization that ultimately led to mass exoduses from Central and South America. A clinical case example will be discussed at length to illustrate the prison and immigration industrial complex as it relates to the migration crisis from the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) and highlight how the "invisible hand of whiteness" (via historical colonization, imperialism, foreign policy and colonization) impact the immigrants’ psyche and social functioning. 

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to:

1. Apply decolonial concepts to their clinical practice.

2. Analyze their countertransference in the context of coloniality in the treatment dyad.

3. Integrate non-analytic concepts (foreign policy) to clinical material (clinical work with immigrants).

Bio

Rossanna Echegoyén, LCSW is a Latina/Bilingual psychoanalyst whose interest lies at the intersection of psychoanalysis and socio-political concerns. She provides immigration evaluations to asylee seekers at ICE detention centers. She maintains a private practice in New York City where her leadership and collaborative work was instrumental for institutional change in the psychoanalytic community.  At Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis, she served as the first Latina Co-Director of MIP and the One Year Program in Psychoanalysis and the Sociopolitical World. She is founder of CORE (Committee on Race and Ethnicity) at MIP, Co-Founder of The Psychoanalytic Coalition for Social Justice and Co-Editor of Div. 39-Sec. 9 The Psychoanalytic Activist.

References:

  1. Bragin, Martha. (2019) Myth, Memory and Meaning: Understanding and Treating Adolescents in Forced Migration. J. Infant Child Adolescent Psychotherapy, (18)(4):319-329.

  2. Hollander, Nancy. (2006). Negotiating Trauma and Loss in the Migration Experience. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, (7)(1):61-70.

  3. Ryan, David. (1999). Colonialism and Hegemony in Latin America: An Introduction. The International Review, June 1999, Vol. 21, No. 2.

  4. Volkan, Vamik D. (2014). Psychoanalysis, International Relations, and Diplomacy. New York: Karnac Books.

  5. Volkan, Vamik D. (2017). Immigrants and Refugees: Trauma, Perennial Mourning, Prejudice, and Border Psychology.  New York: Routledge.

  6. Okazaki, Sumie, E.J.R. David & Nancy Abelman. (2007). Colonialism and Psychology of Culture. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, Vol.2, Issue 1: 90-106. 

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Conference: The Roles Intersectionality & Cultural Humility Play When Working with Diverse Client Populations by Gary Bailey, DHL, MSW, ACSW

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May 4

RIAPP 2024 Social Gathering